Kim Possible: Revelations
by fudje
Summary: There's a new teach' in town, and he's not eating the cafeteria food. The usual villains are doing their thing. Is that all that's going on, though? [Review, pweez! (Insert puppy dog pout here.)]
1. Prologue

**_KP: Revelations_**

_A Kim Possible fan fiction by fudje_

> Disclaimer: Kim Possible and all associated characters a Copyright © Disney, and are used in a not-for-profit artistic manner. Leonard J. Da Hand is a fudje original. All characters and events in this story are entirely ficticious with exception to the Scottish war of independence, and any correlation to the real world is entirely coincidental. Ingredients have not been tested on animals. May contain traces of nuts.

A slim figure tiptoed down the main hall of Middleton High. It was neither Kim nor Mr. Barkin, the only people who were theoretically supposed to be in the building, although they were only there because someone had been seen entering the premises.

"Possible! Is that you?!"

The figure tilted its head on one side and a hand shot to the handle of the sword on its back. It turned to look back along the corridor, and then disappeared into the shadows behind a wall strut, stowing the hand again. Shortly afterwards, a slightly shorter and somewhat more feminine figure darted into the opposite end of the hall from a muscular one.

"I heard something down here, too, Mr. Barkin."

From the shadows, two eyes glinted a brief confusion. Surely he'd never made a sound? It slunk further back into the shadows.

Barkin walked carefully down the hall, scanning every inch. He stopped right before the figure, who remained stock still. Barkin looked to his left, apparently straight at the swordsman, then, crouching, to his right. Something moved above him, apparently on the ceiling, and Kim was on the move. The swordsman tensed, concentrating on the fourth potential combatant. A long-haired shadow descended over him, the figure that cast it dropping from the ceiling. Kim was not fast enough, and the swordsman was wary to give away his position in a battle he was not party to. Knocking Barkin down, the assailant proceeded to dart off in the direction Barkin had come from. Kim came too close, and the figure had let her temper flare - a brief green spark, intended merely to knock Barkin out, was bigger than she'd intended, giving away her identity.

"Shego!" yelled Kim, and continued to charge after her.

The swordsman, relaxing, watched them leave into a classroom, and then turned to look down at the partially conscious Barkin, who was even now coming to. He heard glass break, then there was a pause. Footsteps came back. Kim appeared from the same door via which she'd left, and knelt down next to Barkin.

"Are you okay?"

"I'm fine, Possible. Report."

"She got away," Kim sighed, "Something will probably turn up soon that she's involved in though, so I wouldn't worry."

The swordsman was running out of breath, and relaxed a little to try and accommodate this. He started breathing shallowly, trying not to reveal his hiding place in the shadows. It was good to know that it was probably not him they'd heard.

"Look, she won't be back tonight, Mr. Barkin, and we probably shouldn't be here anyway. I know security's on strike, but-"

"Who told you that?"

"You did, when you called me, remember?"

"Let's get out of here then," and with that they left.

The swordsman drew a breath and stepped lightly out of the shadows. He then went into the classroom through which Shego had left and stepped out through the broken window. After pausing for a moment to check for observers, he stood up tall and his eyes followed the slight trail that Shego had left behind as far as he could track it. As he did so, the moon caught a shadow of his image. He had a long mane very light brown hair, tied behind his head, and the deepest eye sockets you could imagine on a healthy man housed a pair of pale eyes that seemed to reflect their surroundings, neither one colour nor the other. A recognisably masculine but girlishly slim figure was offset by a long robe, and a Scottish Claymore was sashed to his back. A glint of metal off the front of the same sash suggested the presence of more blades, but this was quickly hidden by the robe, which he now pulled again tight around him. He pulled a hood over his head and the handle of the sword, and looked down.

"Shego, eh?" he asked the air, "looks like a bright girl. What a stupid name, though. I guess I can't talk, though," and he was gone, in a different direction.


	2. Too Tired

Kim Possible woke to her alarm with a start. On the floor. Her hair was an utter mess, and she looked hungover, which is never a good thing in a 16 year old. She rubbed her forehead above the left eye and climbed up into her bed, planting her face in her pillow.

"Kim! Time to get up!"

"Just eight more hours, mom!" she yelled back.

"Kimberley Anne Possible, you'll be late for dinner, let alone school," a voice that seemed like her mother's proclaimed from the door, but something was wrong with it, "and you're going to be in _so_ much trouble!" She looked back at the door through the corner of her eye.

"Get out of my room, you - Tweebs!" she yelled, turning and throwing her pillow at Tim.

"Ugh! What happened to you?!"

Kim scowled, and lowered her head almost until she was looking through her brow. "I've had two hours sleep. Go away," and the angry expression on her face solidified.

"Ooh, Kim's grumpy because she stayed out late with her Boyfriend, Mr. Barkin," they teased.

"That is so gross it's not funny!" yelled Kim in a disgusted voice that was, however, equally as teasing as the Tweebs'. This caught them off guard, and Kim was almost on top of them before they'd remembered to run. She chased them all the way to the kitchen, and had actually tackled Jim to the floor and they slid right up to a pair of shoes.

"Hey, when I did that I lost my pants on the stair-rail-thing!"

Kim stood up straight fast, accidentally allowing Jim to get away. She'd even started to smooth out her hair when she suddenly realised, and relaxed into a slouch. It was just Ron.

"Kimmie, you're going to be late for school," said her dad into a newspaper which he didn't look up from, "Doubly late because you need a shower." He furrowed his brow. "Have you been drinking?"

Kim looked shocked. "Dad, this is me you're talking about. That's illegal and dangerous! The very thought...!" she turned and stormed off back to her room. Ron started to followed but stopped when she placed a hand on his chest. "Shower, remember?"

"Oh yeah," replied Ron.

"The first class is with Barkin, right?"

"I think so" he seemed kinda' distant now.

"Good." Barkin would understand. Wouldn't he?

"What do you mean good? Barkin as sub and we're late? He'll kill us!"

"Correction, I'm late. You go on without me."

"But- but- you'll be in detention all by yourself again,"

"Look, he'll understand, okay?" and she continued on her way.

"Actually, I just remembered there's some new teacher!" Ron yelled after her, but it fell on deaf ears.

Ron turned back to the kitchen and waved to the parents Possible. "Bye Dr. P, Mrs. Dr. P!"

"Have a nice day, Ronald," came the reply in unison.

The tweebs ran through, yelled "Bye" to their parents and were through the door before they could be reminded to take their lunch. Ron picked it up and followed them out the door yelling "See you at school, KP!" up the stairs.

When the door was shut, Dad Possible turned to he wife and mumbled, "I was sneaking alcohol by the time I was her age."

His wife looked him in the eye and sighed. "We have to set an example, so don't tell _her_ that." There was a pause and then she continued in a lower voice, "My favourite at the time was Sambuca, what about you?"

"I don't remember," came the reply, "but I'm pretty sure that she can't qualify saying something's dangerous. Look at all the life-threatening stuff she _does_ do!"


	3. New Teach'

Kim entered the classroom somewhat sheepishly. She was ten minutes late and there were still dark rings under her eyes.

"Ah, you must be Miss Possible!" A young man wearing jeans and a red short sleeved shirt was standing at the front of the room. Almost blond hair had a "newly cut" look, and his eyes were in dark shadow, but shone a pale blue that seemed to be tarnished at the base. As he moved towards Kim it became evident that this was a reflection, and she was still staring at him as they grew red rims from his approach.

"Take a seat. I understand that you were out late last night - Some security matter or other? Mister Barkin told me. I won't hold it against you."

"Thanks." Kim stared at his eyes a moment longer, her own narrowing, but she shook it off and sat down next to Ron. The way he said the full 'Mister', how odd, she thought. Bonnie, sitting in front of them, turned and addressed Kim.

"You got a crush on teach, Kimmy?"

"No," Kim scowled at her, "I didn't realise we had a new teacher...."

"I'm so glad. We couldn't have a cheer captain going out with someone wearing an outfit that dorky. What kind of loser would wear something like that anyway?" she asked, glancing at Ron, who also scowled. She turned her attention back to the class.

"As I was saying, I'll be teaching this class for the rest of the year, and rest assured that I won't be eating any of the cafeteria food." This raised a small laugh, a couple of hissed yeses, and one whispered "Boo-ya!" The teacher was apparently still going through introductions.

"He only arrived himself about five minutes ago," whispered Ron, "Instead of calling the roll, he asked people to stand and say their name. I covered for you!"

"I am so sorry I missed that." Kim replied sarcastically, making Ron grin. She looked up to the name on the top right of the board.

Mr. Leonard James Da Hand, she read, "odd name."

Apparently she had spoken her thought. "Not really," explained Da Hand, "Hand was a small town in what is now Switzerland. Way back, my family was from there - 'Da Hand' means, quite literally, 'from Hand'. Although, I'm more English than Swiss myself."

Although not very English at all, Kim thought, and I can't place his accent.

"It's not normal for a teacher to tell us their given names, though."

"Thank you, Mr. Mankey. I'll take a note of that for future reference." The boy sitting on the other side of Ron from Kim smiled, and then looked over and Kim and winked. It wasn't normal for him to comment in class. He went back to his tic-tac-toe tournament with Ron, who hissed a brief victory celebration. Rufus, sitting on Ron's shoulder, clicked his tongue and shook his head - Ron had just actually just "boo-ya"'d a draw.

"Now can anyone tell me where we're up to?" queried Da Hand.

"We're not little kids...." Bonnie quietly protested.

Monique, on the other hand, was eager to join in on the action. Her hand shot into the air.

"Yes, Monique?"

"We were just about to start work on the Scottish war of independence!" she burst out.

Bonnie, disgusted, cut in. "Talk to Da Hand, suck-up, 'cause- wait, you already did!" The whole room except for Kim, Ron, Josh, and Monique burst out laughing. Monique scowled, Kim raised an eyebrow, and Ron and Josh were too deep into their 30th game. Josh was winning eighteen to one, ten draw. It was soon to be eleven.

"Is that the best you can do?" Da Hand, scowling, his own eyebrow raised, directed at Bonnie in a dry, heavy tone. The whole class shut up, and Josh lost concentration momentarily before Ron, causing Ron to win a second game. Rufus jumped on to Kim's back and looked out nervously from behind a red lock. Pretty much everyone thought Da Hand looked ready to kill.

Da Hand smiled. "Thank you, Monique," he said. "From the top. In 1291..."

The class continued. Only Josh had seen the glint in his eye, and recognised how deep it went. He'd seen it before, in the closest friend of his girlfriend.


	4. Watch her Back

Ron was sitting by himself in the cafeteria. Just what Josh needed - he didn't need the girl he'd come to think of as his to be concerned with him being concerned for her safety. As the boy approached, Ron looked up.

"Uh, hey Josh," he started, confused.

"How's it hanging with The Ron?" it seemed like the emotional expression of the two boys had swapped, momentarily.

"The Ron is bon-diggetty A.O.K!" exclaimed 'The' Ron, proving that it really was only momentary. Josh smiled, and wondered whether his friend had picked that he was being teased - a ponderance that was answered when Ron grinned and continued, "although he's a little hard pressed for the green these days...." He seemed to have a knack for knowing when someone was joking rather than insulting him.

Josh paused for too long. He wasn't sure how he was going to word his concerns even to the most relaxed person he knew - admittedly someone who did seem, at times, to simply be an extension of Kim.

"Something's bothering The Josh, though." Ron almost phrased as a question, in a lowered voice, glancing at Kim who was talking with her cheer squad. He seemed to know whenever something was about Kim - although Josh would rarely approach him out of class for anything else anyway.

Josh looked over to where Kim was, and then back at Ron. He eviscerated a box from about his person, and opened it, showing its contents, a silver necklace, to Ron. "Do you think she'll like it?"

Ron winked. "She'll love it," he replied casually, then lowering his voice again and continuing with a question, "now, what's really up?"

Josh sighed in relief; Ron seemed to have gained a discernible gift of insight in the last while. "It's the new teach, Ron. There's something about him that I've only seen in two people before - In Mr. Barkin, and yourself."

Ron's face contorted into his old, confused, self. "What thing?" he asked.

"Listen, Ron, I know that one of the reasons you insist on going on every slightest mission with Kim is to protect her. Don't get me wrong, I'm grateful for it - it's something I couldn't do. Kim prides herself on being able to do anything - but you're actually prepared to do it. It's an essential difference - she's drawn a line that she won't cross, but I know that if she's in danger, you're prepared - even to kill.  
"This new teach, he has that same air about him. And he seems to have an interest in Kim. He hardly took his eyes off her during the history class. "

"See, now that is sick and wrong!" exclaimed Ron at the top of his voice, as he was wont to do. This caused Kim to look over in their direction, but seeing him sitting talking with Josh, she shrugged it off as one of those Ron things. Which, essentially, it was. It had piqued the interest of Felix though, who'd until that point been eating his lunch at the next table over. He rolled on up to Ron and Josh.

"Not that way!" hissed Josh under his breath.

"What way?" asked Felix.

"Ron's assuming that something I said meant that our new history teacher, Mr. Da Hand, had, uh, sexual interests in KP." still under his breath.

Felix laughed. "Da Hand? Nah, he's alright. How was history this morning, by the way? I kinda' missed it."

"You think either of us noticed?"

Felix's laugh had attracted enough of Kim's attention that she was now walking over to the three of them. Josh leaned over to Ron, and told him what he knew was going to happen anyway.

"Yeah, I've got her back." came the whispered reply.

"Thanks."

"So, what are you guys talking about?" Kim had arrived. The bags under her eyes had more or less cleared by now, but not without a lot of convincing in the girls' room.

"Oh, you know, just guy stuff." said Ron dismissively.

"I see," sarcastic tones expressed otherwise, "such as?"

"You know, like how boring history class is and stuff...." replied Felix.

"That's guy stuff now, is it? Since when are we girls not allowed to be bored by history?"

It was Josh's turn. He gulped slightly - he was never good at carrying others' cover stories. He decided on a different tactic. Presenting the necklace to Kim, and sighing a faux defeat, he asked, "Do you like it?"

Kim was dumbfounded. "It's- It's... beautiful!"

"Told ya!" Ron and Felix exclaimed in synchronis.


	5. Again with the Poor Handwriting

"Did you get it?" the blue skinned villain was on the verge of jumping up and down on the spot like a dog whose master's come home.

"Yeah, I got it. Calm down." Shego said, handing a hand-held thumb button device to him. "What did you want some high school geek's science fair project for anyway?"

"Hardly just a high school geek, Shego," Drakken chided, "Miss Flanner is one of the most respected scientists in Middleton, no, the world! And this device will make me unstoppable!"

"There you go again, blab blab blab. So, do you know what this thing-I-just-jigged does?"

"Well, it.... It'll do _something_ to make me unstoppable! Look, it says unstoppable on it!"

"Are you sure it doesn't say _Ron Stoppable_ on it? 'Cause, you know, Monkey Fist was caught out by that one." Shego sat up, but Drakken hadn't noticed that it wasn't her voice.

"Of course it doesn't say Ron Stoppable! What on earth does that mean, anyway?!"

"Well, that would be that name of Kim Possible's dopey sidekick, Dr. D," Shego stood up, "Who just so _happens_ to be who just said that. I guess Kimmie's not far away, then?"

Right on cue, a dark figure snatched the device from Drakken's puny digits before swooping back up to a balcony.

"Right here," she said, "and you, Dr. D, are _so_ busted. Plus, it _does_ actually say Ron Stoppable on it. Right under where it says Justine Flanner. Looks like Rufus's handwriting though. What were you planning on doing with it? If I recall, it's a portable defibrillator. Is that right, Ron?"

"Defibrillator? It's a heart restarter thinggy!"

"And there, you have the reason why Justine decided not to do the hyperspace vortex inducer she was planning on. That's what a defibrillator is, Ron." Kim sighed and scratched the back of her head.

"Shego! Get Kim Possible!" Drakken yelled at the top of his voice, "I shouldn't have to tell you that!"

But Shego didn't move. She just stood, staring at the control panel behind Drakken that Kim had narrowly missed during her acrobatics.

Drakken glared at her in an attempt to be menacing. "Well?!"

Shego walked past Drakken to the terminal.

"You let them get away!" screamed Drakken.

"Perhaps. They tend to get away anyway." Shego replied unusually quietly, then seemed to pick up a handful of nothing from the desk.

"Well, I guess it's not like they'd taken anything useful away, like a hyperspace vortex inducer! What would that do anyway?"

"Basically," replied Shego, turning around and slowly walking back to Drakken, "it would allow you to travel from one place to another really _really_ fast. Anyway, do you still have DNAmy's number?"

"Yes. Why?" Drakken huffed.

Shego looked up and held out her hand. Striking an extreme contrast to the green of her glove was a bundle of long red hair.

"I think maybe it's time I had someone decent to work with."


	6. Multiple Types of Trouble

Author's Notes and external comments: (These will be endnoted in the final script).  
KP4me asked me to put this here; I have no idea why: 

> You people need to read this!This might be better than Cyberwraith9's work.I've read it,and it's awsome! And If you guys don't read it,TOUGH! you're gonna regret it.
> 
> KP4me  
(Kim Possible's Guardian Angel)

* * *

"Wha'?" Kim announced to the world as she woke up. She sat up slowly - it was still dark. Flashing lights lit up her room around her, though, and she looked over at her alarm clock. The display read '3:07'.

She walked to the window and drew back the curtain. There was a multitude of police squad cars parked on the Possible residence front lawn, all with lights flashing. Several had rifle-bearing personnel kneeling behind them.

"What's going on?" she asked groggily. Instantaneously, all of the rifles were pointed at her window.

"Kimberley Anne Possible, exit the building with your hands behind your head!" blasted out of a megaphone. Several familiar faces were lining the street now, and Kim noticed than Ron wasn't among them. Probably hasn't woken him, she thought.

"Hang on, I'm in pyjamas here," Kim replied before turning back from the window.

She appeared walking as casually as possible from the front door several moments later, fully clothed and with briefly brushed hair, her hands behind her head as requested. After all, it was probably just a misunderstanding.

An officer roughly grabbed her from behind and moved her hands so that they were behind her back, and cuffed them.

"Hey, easy on her, she's delicate!" said a familiar face from not far away. Officer Hobble really did not want to see Kim hurt.

"What's the sitch?" asked Kim, "Is there some misunderstanding somewhere?"

"Misunderstanding?!" exclaimed the officer who'd cuffed her, "You'll find out what a 'misunderstanding' it was from the four officers you killed in the Middleton Mall car-park!"

"I killed some policemen?" Kim was displaying Ron-levels of confusion as this point, "I don't think so. I don't do that kind of thing! What on earth is going on?"

"Stand down, sergeant," Officer Hobble walked over and took Kim from him, "this is Kim Possible we've got here. If she thinks there's some kind of misunderstanding with this situation, I'm inclined to believe her."

"Can you do that, officer Hobble?" asked Kim. He showed her his shiny new badge. "Oh. Inspector Hobble. You got the transfer, then?"

"You just saw it," he replied, and then, lowering his voice, "I knew I should have come to get you alone."

"So, what _is_ the sitch?" Kim repeated, slightly frustrated.

"We're not sure of the exact details at this point," replied Hobble, escorting Kim into his own car, and then covertly uncuffing then re-cuffing her hands in front of her, "but there was a break-in at a jewelry store at the mall, four officers are dead from having necks snapped clean, and several witnesses place two females at the scene. One of them has been identified by a fair fraction of them as you, and the other is rather curious - apparently she glows green."

"Well, that would be Shego, then," replied Kim, "but I assure you, I have never worked with her ... as a criminal."

"Nonetheless, miss Possible, you understand that I have to bring you down to the station."

"Naturally - I'm a suspect. Very temporarily, I hope. When was this, incidentally?" Kim yawned.

"Only about half an hour ago. In all honesty, I think it's fair to say that the fact that we just got you from your house is enough evidence to suggest you weren't anywhere near the crime scene. Unfortunately, there is no 'It can't have been Kim' clause in the law - otherwise you'd still be asleep."

Kim didn't reply. The inspector looked to the back seat, and saw her dozing off into the corner of the car. He smiled. That was one of the advantages of his new position as juvenile crime police inspector, he thought, the back seat of the car is comfy enough that they can get some sleep.

Not a one noticed the dark figure that crept in and out of Kim's bedroom window.

* * *

Ron woke to the sound of angry beeping. He looked over to the source of the noise to see Wade's face on his computer screen.

"What's up, Wade?" he asked groggily.

"You _really_ need to see this," was the extent of the reply before Wade's face morphed into Kim's.

"Ron!" she exclaimed.

"Easy there," Shego's voice penetrated the transmission, before a gloved hand pulled up Kim's head to reveal a knife pressed against her neck, "We want the right message to go across. Hi there, master sidekick," at this point Shego, her own face now next to Kim's exposed neck, grinned, "It's simple. You bring the hyperspace vortex inducer, you get your girlfriend back. If you're lucky, in once piece." To emphasise her point, she pushed the tip of the blade into Kim's neck. It drew blood. Kim winced and gritted her teeth.

"Uh- uh- OK." Ron was visibly shaken. "That'll just take a couple' minutes. I have to talk to Justine-I'll be there as soon as I've got it."

"You better be." The transmission snapped off, back to Wade's face.

"So, what's the plan?" he asked.

"Call Josh," said Ron, "Tell him to meet me at the front gate of the park in five minutes, KIT urgency. Shego's up to something - she would never just hand Kim over."

"KIT urgency?"

"'Kim's In Trouble'. He'll understand. I have to visit Justine first." Ron picked up the phone and dialled his science fair partner's number, at the same time as he grabbed a pair of trousers with his other hand.

"Hi, is Justine there?  
"No, this is not a booty call.  
"It's about the science fair project  
"I know it's early, and no it can't wait.  
"Thank you."

A pause made Ron's mood intensify. He switched hands to finish pulling his shirt over his head, and then he was bouncing on the spot. "Hello Justine?  
"Yeah, I have a good reason  
"Kim's in trouble. I need to know, did you build that hyperspace thinggy anyway?  
"A prototype is fine, I just need it as a distraction piece.  
"Basically, Shego and Drakken have Kim, and I need to get her out.  
"No, I don't need to know how to operate it. If I can come by in about a minute and get it from you?  
"Mucho Thanks!"

After a pause, Ron dropped the receiver on his phone, pulled on his shoes, grabbed a pre-packed backpack from under his bed, and darted out into the hall.

"What's happening, Ron?" Mrs. Stoppable looked rather surprised.

"Kimsintrouble,gottago,loveyou,bye!" Came the hurried response as Ron ran past her and out the front door.

Mrs. Stoppable's surprise only grew, but she'd understood enough. Enough even to know, that for Ron, this was crunch time. When he found out whether he had what it takes. She leaned against the wall, then slid down until she was sitting on the floor with her back to it. She hoped he did.

* * *

Josh stood waiting at the gate of Middleton Park. "Where _is_ he?" he asked the world angrily. Just then, He noticed a familiar blond head running towards him down the street.

"You're late." Josh stated as Ron came skidding to a halt where Josh stood.

"Yeah, sorry. You wouldn't believe the amount of trouble that I had convincing Justine's mom that I wasn't taking her daughter away, only our original science fair project." Ron's quickness of speech indicated that he was catching his breath. His eyes indicated that he didn't intend to be doing so for a long time.

"Anyone thought you were taking their daughter away? Things are getting weird around here-"

"Drakken's lair is _this_ way. If it hasn't moved." Ron tugged Josh into the park and they started running as Ron's pack beeped. He grabbed what looked like a Kimmunicator from it. "Wade?" he queried

"I'm still getting the energy reading from the same place," the 11-year-old genius stated, "You remember how to get there?"

"Of course," Ron's voice growled, "Kim Possible, you are going to be saved."

Behind the boys, a shadow detached itself from the Park gate. 'What are you two boys up to?' Da Hand mouthed breathlessly, before following stealthily after them.


	7. Break Out, Break In

Author's Note:

Hi, nachonaco! I already had the synth Kims in my head before reading your work - although I was labelling them 'clones', which of course they're not.

* * *

"Why is it that _you_ don't have to keep the contract, and I do?" Drakken was clearly annoyed, "We could have cloned you ages ago!"

"OK, OK. Dr D. One, it's the part of the contract that's relevant to me. Two, I didn't try to do it myself and end up creating some random clone that dissolved when you sprayed it with soda, and three, I can hurt you." Shego flared her hands in demonstration.

Drakken huffed. "I still don't get it," he started. But he was cut off.

"When you two are done having a hissy fit at each other, can we get down to business?" A voice floated up from the floor. Drakken and Shego looked down from their elevated position. Ron stepped into the circle of light on the floor, holding a bulky object in one hand. "Where's Kim?" He asked, apparently calm, holding the hyperspace vortex inducer at arm's length, "Release her to me, or I'll drop it." To himself, he really was nervous, though.

"No, you won't," came the reply, from Shego rather than Drakken. She stepped into the edge of the light, so that Ron couldn't quite see her. "You don't want anything to happen to your dear Kimmie, so you're not even going to suggest that again."

Far back in the shadows, Josh Mankey stood, almost leaning against a wall, waiting for his cue. Even farther back, Da Hand, of whom neither party was aware, was crouching in the darkest shadow he could find. 'Bluffing to a "villain",' he thought, 'now there's something that'll bring you unstuck _fast_.'

As another shadow passed him, he unsheathed a short knife, and handled it by the blade. Then the figure of the shadow became recognised to him - a familiar hero. He replaced his blade, just before he realised. He'd seen Kim taken into the police station handcuffed - that figure could not be her. She'd already reached Josh, though, and abruptly picked him up by the back of his collar - he hadn't even heard her approach. Rather than pick a fight, Da Hand simply shifted around so that he could get a better view of what Ron was doing

Back in the limelight, Ron was putting an effort into staring Shego down. "Where is she?" he asked again. "You have to tell me before-"

A voice he recognised interrupted him from behind. "Look what I found. Backup, I suppose?"

Ron turned suddenly. "KP?!" he exclaimed.

The apparent Kim was still holding Josh, who was now struggling to breath, by his collar. She dropped him on the floor, and then touched the back of his head. He collapsed to the floor with a sigh. Then she held up her hand, and Ron shrieked and _did_ drop the vortex inducer to the ground. Her hand was flaring green. Two more Kim-like synths then appeared in the edge of the light.

"Isn't this precious?" Shego mocked from behind him, "Kimberleys, I know you'd like to have some fun, but it's important that these two are taken _prisoner_. Then when the real Kim finally gets here, if she does, we can party."

None of them were expecting what happened next. A streak of blue metamorphosed into a human next to Ron, and knocked him to the ground. Unsheathing the sword from his back, he blocked the first synth's attack, before letting go of the Claymore with his left hand and turning to stab the second synth with a short dagger, which he retrieved apparently from his left sock. It sank clean into her chest, and the synth dropped to the floor, dead. Disappearing the dagger again, the upwards momentum of his foot would have allowed him to kick the third synth hard in the face, had she not caught his leg. He tried to twist through with his other foot, but she had them both airbourne, and had wrapped her upper body around his leg before kicking him in the face.  
She got him in the mouth, but to the synth's shock, instead of reacting like most people would, he bit down hard on her ankle, and folded his own knee up into her forehead before they both came down hard onto the ground. By sheer chance, the synth's head was between Da Hand's knee and the floor, and it was knocked unconscious. Anticipating what was coming, Da Hand replaced his hand on the sword's handle and narrowly made blocking Shego's attack, which still sent him and the synth flying across the room. Mid flight, he replaced the sword in its sheath, flipped and landed leaning against the wall. The synth's unconscious form, following slightly after, crashed into his ready arms, and he whispered a brief incantation. As Shego charged, he began to glow a silvery blue, and when she finally arrived she slashed through thin air that was glowing and jammed her hands into the wall.

* * *

Kim's eyes shot open as she was awoken by the sound of the front door of the station crashing open. She saw her new history teacher, holding in one arm what appeared to be her own body, dressed in her mission outfit, and realisation dawned.

"A clone?" she asked herself, standing and walking to the bars that held her.

"You have to release Kim," Da Hand advised the warden, panting, "Kids, trapped by Shego," he explained, odd breaks making his speech almost completely incoherent, "need her help."

"She is a suspect in a multiple-homicide case," the warden replied, "I can't release her."

Da Hand scowled at the warden, and hefted the synth's body onto the desk. "Listen, mister, she didn't do it. You know she didn't do it, I know she didn't do it, she knows she didn't do it, and this insult to creation knows damn well she didn't, because it probably _did_! Right now, Kim is needed to save a pair of teenagers that I don't think the world can particularly afford to lose. All you have to do is take your key and let her out of that cell, and everything will be fine and dandy."

The warden's glare hardened. "Alternately," he replied, "your barging in here, heavily armed as you are, entitles me to take that key and put you in there with her." He chose that moment to hold his sidearm up to Da Hand's face. "Step back from the counter, and place your hands behind your-"

A green flaming hand tore right through the warden's hand and crushed the pistol. The Kim-synth's eyes shot open as she stood up in one movement and pushed the warden against the wall behind him, pinning him by his neck, which stifled his scream and choked him.  
In an equally swift, but not as complicated movement, Da Hand sliced his sword through from the synth's right shoulder to her left hip, and as the top of her body fell away, the warden fainted. In her cell, Kim dropped to her knees and retched.

Da Hand felt around the warden's neck to check for tissue or bone damage before taking out a small dagger, and cutting away the pieces of flesh that were burned to the broken pistol. He bandaged what was left of the warden's hand and stood up.

"What are you doing?" Da Hand turned around to see Inspector Hobble glaring at him. He simply pointed to the warden and broken synth in response.  
Hobble looked at the warden, the two halves of the synth's corpse, at Kim's cell, where she was still on her knees, holding her stomach, in the case that she would actually vomit instead of dry-retching, and back to Da Hand, and silently mouthed "Oh."

Without a further word, the inspector took the cell keys from the hook on the wall, and opened Kim's cell. He took hold of her arm, and pulled her to her feet. Kim swallowed, closed her eyes, and set her balance. When she opened them, she was greeted with a simple, sincere statement.  
"When you've finished, you better be able to give a good explanation for this." Hobble then picked up the warden and carried him to a back room in the station.

"I don't know whether to thank you, or scold you, Mr. Da Hand." stated Kim.

"Len."

"What?"

"Please, just call me Len. As in, short for Leonard."

"Len Da Hand, hey? That's even worse than 'Will Du'."

"Indeed. Right now, however, it's time to go and rescue your boys."

"My boys?" Kim's tone indicated that she was not impressed by what she heard as they exited the police station. They started to run towards Middleton Park, which fortunately enough took them past Kim's house.

"Shego and some blue guy have Ron and Josh trapped. There's more of those faux clones," he paused, "synths, you might call them, back where they are."

"The blue guy is Dr. Drakken. Theoretically, he's a genius-"

"Hence the synths?"

"No, he couldn't synthesise a stable lifeform if he gave up his 'evil genius'ing to solve that one problem. Also, as far as I know, Shego has a strict thing against him getting a hold of her DNA - you saw the synth's hands burning in there. That's Shego's 'glow' power."

"Seen? That one nearly ripped my leg off in their lair! Why are we stopping here?"

"Supplies." Kim said, walking up the driveway of her home.

They entered Kim's home, and Len followed Kim up to her room. She opened a closet and selected a backpack from a rack of about fifteen. "Considering your array of weapons, I presume you intend to go in guns blazing?", she asked Len, "figuratively speaking, of course."

"Already did that, so they'll be ready for it," he replied, "and I don't normally, anyway. If I have a choice, I prefer to avoid confrontations like that."

Kim replaced the pack and selected another one. "Stealth it is, then. Damn, where's the Kimmunicator?" she asked herself.

"Kim, is that you?" Wade's voice penetrated the darkness.

"Yeah," Kim replied, without looking up, "what's the sitch, and do you know where the Kimmunicator is?"

"It's, uh, in Drakken's lair...."

"That would probably explain how Ron and Josh were baited, then." Len surmised.

"Yeah, uhm, I fell for that one too," admitted Wade, "I kinda' contacted Ron directly. I should have checked if you were in your room, as well."

He winced in Kim's computer monitor when she flicked it on. "You what?" she scowled. Then her face relaxed. "I probably wouldn't have been there anyway. I spent the last 4 hours in a cell at the police station. Which is going to be tough to explain to my parents when they get home."

"Well, I shouldn't have dismissed the anomaly in your DNA scan, anyway. I thought it was residue from your super strength episode."

"Shego's glow power gene?"

Wade furrowed his brow. "Yeah, but there's something else as well. Looks like it's an entirely synthetic chromosome. I'm not quite sure what it is, but I'll tell you as soon as I know."

"OK. You remember my cellphone number, right?" Kim pocketed said device.

"Of course. Good luck." With that, Wade signed out.

Kim reached into another pack, and retrieved a grappling hook. She offered it to Len.

"Got that covered," he said, showing her the launching device strapped under his forearm that she'd previously assumed was yet another knife. She put the grappling hook down.

"Let's go, then."


	8. Revelation to Kim, Part I

Kim surveyed the scene through light enhancing glasses. The light enhancement in itself wasn't particularly useful - the automatic adjustment meant it didn't actually do that much to the morning haze, but the IR overlay told her more than she needed to know. The place was crawling with synthetic versions of herself.

"I have an approach plan." she announced quietly.

"Below the ridge and through the front door?" It was still a question, but Len asked it as though it was rhetorical.

Kim nodded. "That's your route. I'm taking the roof."

They crept forward, and around to the base of the steep ridge. They continued along the base of the ridge unnoticed, but had to stop when they came to where they had to switch to a ridge on the other side. A synthetic Kim was standing exactly where they wanted to be.

"Let's see, what else is there?" Kim started to look around.

"It's the only way through." stated Len. His hand disappeared into his robe, and a moment later the synth fell to the ground dead, a throwing knife lodged in the back of her sternum.

"Do you have to do that?" asked Kim before they started to move on around the edge of the natural court. They hadn't moved far, though, before a collection of Kim synths appeared suddenly around every conceivable nook in the landscape.

Len drew his sword, just before a mass of green fire was launched at them. They danced around the missiles, Len deflecting those that came too close, or his sword apparently absorbing their energy.  
Finally they reached cover in the form of the space between some rocks and a moat, and only one synth in the way. Len thrust his now green-glowing sword into her chest, and she fell into the moat, spewing green fire out of her mouth.

"'ve never seen _that_ before," Len offered to the falling body. Kim, outside of his vision, grabbed onto her chest before falling to the ground. When he dropped to the ground next to her, she was rubbing her temples.  
She didn't let on, but every time one of the synths was injured, she felt it slightly, and she wasn't just imagining it. It was real physical pain.

"There's something about the way they reacted to what you did," she said, looking down to the ground, "it's almost like..."

The two looked at each other, both narrowing their eyes. "Hive mind." they said in Unison. Then Kim picked up her phone, which had just started to vibrate in her pocket.

"Go Wade.  
"Hive mind? _Really_?  
"Sorry; We just worked that out for ourselves. It's no big."  
She turned to Len. "Most metal melts or burns when exposed to that." She stated, but there was a silent question attached to it.

"That would be implying this is an ordinary blade," replied Len, "I'd have thought you'd know better than that."

Kim opened her mouth to speak, but heard footsteps approaching. Instead she whispered into Len's ear, "Draw for me?"

He nodded. "Get to the roof."

With that, he spun up out of the cover, and thrust a long dagger into and out of the sternum of the synth that was now on top of them, and followed this up by removing her partner's head with his sword. Moving along the edge of the moat, he ducked up and down, cutting and weaving, and occasionally throwing a knife at a slightly more distant synth. His finale consisted of a high back-flip over a synth on the footbridge at the lair's gate, who turned and caught his sword just in time, but failed to stop him from twisting her over behind him and forcing the again glowing sword through her neck, all the time entertaining the idea that hopefully Kim was tougher to fight than these abominations. This one expulged the green fire on to the bridge, and Da Hand was lucky to swoop into the shadows inside the lair in time. It provided for quite a distraction, and none of the synths noticed original Kim swinging across the moat and up the side of the building on to the roof.

* * *

Ron woke up with heavy arms. Looking up, he saw that this was because he was hanging from his hands, that were cuffed to a wall, along with his feet below him.

"So, what do we do now?" Ron look to his left to see Josh Mankey, frustrated, also cuffed to the wall.

"Well, normally at this point, Kim would point out to Rufus which button to press to release us."

"And?" Josh was still more anticipatory than angry with Ron.

"And regrettably, in my rush to fall into a trap, I left the little guy at home."

"Great."

Ron diverted his attention from Josh to the female figures that were guarding them. "Hey, Kim," he started, "What's up?"

"Forget it, Ron. I already tried. They don't seem to be anything like Kim mentally. They look pretty hot in those suits, though...."

Ron looked the nearest one up and down, and whistled. Indeed, in the dark green and black jumpsuits that Shego had assigned them, the synthetic Kims did look pretty hot. "You'll never get her to dress up like that, man," Ron said, turning to him, "not in a million years."

Ron's head snapped back to the Kim synths as one fell to the floor. A short knife was planted neatly in her chest. The synth was clearly dead. The other one that was standing swivelled around, and was rewarded by a curved blade striking her in the side of the neck. She fell gracefully to the floor, also dead.

"Where are you, little fighter man?" the third one put a device down on the desk next to her, but didn't yet stand. "You can't be by the entrance, or by the basement door, because those are where the knives came from. So, that way!" Now she jumped to her feet, and taking a defensive stance to the remaining quadrant that was not taken by a wall with two prisoners attached to it, prepared for any attack from that direction.

Instead she was assaulted from above by an aggravated cheerleader. "I believe that's mine." Kim said, removing the Kimmunicator from the desk before departing skywards. Kim somersaulted off her bungee line, and landed lightly in front of a control panel on the desk. For some reason, the bungee line broke near the top, causing a synth that had started to slide down the rope behind Kim to instead descend at speed to her doom. As she fell, Kim didn't move, studying the array of controls on the desk carefully.  
The synth, realising her impending death, determined to take Kim out with her. She flared up along her whole body. Just before she landed, Kim, apparently coming to a decision, stepped forward out of harm's way to release the two boys. A chair broke the synth's fall, but also, audibly, her neck. The fallen synth, the chair, and the now-coming-to synth next to the chair, were all consumed in a green hell.

"Thanks, KP!" Ron exclaimed as she turned around, and he and Josh dropped to the floor from their bindings. Neither had seen her collapse after the two synths burned. It seemed to her that because they were closer to her, the pain was worse. Plus two of them had died in an excruciatingly painful way. Josh walked up to embrace Kim, but she pushed her hand against his chest, and her head was tilted to one side.

"Sometimes she needs to set a plan just after escaping," offered Ron to the confused Josh, but in truth he couldn't say he'd seen Kim do this before.

She let her hand down and back-flipped over the desk, and didn't stop moving around in a fast leg sweep until a synthetic version of herself was that had been approaching from behind was on the ground. She then dropped her knee, her full weight behind it, into the synth's back. The crunch was sickening. The synth wasn't dead, though, only broken. Kim didn't kill as a rule. Besides, the pain that writhed through her own back was bad enough.

"Come on, let's get out of here," she motioned to the boys. Ron followed quickly and relatively athletically over the desk, but Josh had to pause and clamber over it. It wasn't actually that he was physically unfit, Kim told herself, but he hasn't done it often enough yet to have the confidence.

The three of them scurried across the floor to where Da Hand was waiting by the exit, sword at ready. They entered the hallway, only to see more than a dozen synths ready for them.

"You didn't think it was going to be that easy, did you, Princess?" Behind them, Shego's voice was disturbingly calm, and her speech carefully executed. Len keep a careful eye on the synths in the hall, but the three teenagers turned to see more synthetic Kims on the main floor, and yet more on the upper level. Shego herself, standing between Drakken and DNAmy, didn't move a muscle. 

"How many Kims _are_ there?!" exclaimed Ron.

Da Hand shook his head. "We can't get out of this one easily. We're going to have to fight." He paused for a moment, then looked directly at Kim. "We're going to have to kill."

It was Kim's turn to shake her head. "The good guys never kill," she said, "and I certainly won't".

Da Hand sighed. "This is more complicated than Good versus Evil, Miss Possible. In a way, it always has been, but you refused to accept that. Somehow, you got away with it.  
"You have to fight evil with evil, sometimes." Len started, drawing a small sword from in his robe, and handing it to Josh hilt first. "Often, evil can look like good, and vice versa." he continued, offering a slightly longer, but lighter sword to Kim, whom he knew had the agility to handle its tricky blade. She frowned, but accepted the sword anyway. "Sometimes, you have to weigh between a lesser and greater evil.  
"Now is one of those times. Trust me, we all of us need to survive this." And he gripped his own Claymore with both hands.

"Hey, don't I get a weapon?!"

Len blinked at Ron. "You have your own sword." he stated, and his eyes widened; "Behind you!" he exclaimed in an urgent tone, before turning back to his own task, the Kim synths heading down the entrance hall towards them.

Ron turned sharply, and his arms, of their own accord, formed into position to catch something. There was a sudden sensation of movement and Ron's body swung through without him. He was rather surprised when all four of the synth Kims that were attacking him were struck down at his hand. He looked down to see the Lotus Blade shining golden in his hands.

"Somebody stop me!" he turned, grinning, but seeing Kim's scowl his whacked sense of humour immediately faded.

The four of them fought, the boys and Len more enthusiastically. Even thrust, every strike against the synths, Kim winced in pain. She didn't see, but Shego, above them, also writhed, albeit less so. Dr. Drakken and DNAmy were the only ones to notice Shego's flinching. Amy looked thoughtfully at Shego, and then shrugged, wandering off. Drakken was more concerned with it, but any pain of others seemed like good pain to him by now, and he had to stop himself smiling at her pain.

The four fighters were not making fast progress, but they were out-fighting the seemingly weak synths. Every one of the synths visibly flinched whenever one of them was killed, and while the three male fighters noted this of the synths, still none of them saw Kim's pain. There came a point where the three of them were each immediately only facing one synth - which both sides knew handed advantage to the swordsmen. Seemingly in unison, they thrust their blades through the sternum of their respective opponents. 

Kim's shriek of pain entirely masked Shego's own whimper from above. She collapsed to the ground, dropping her sword and her body moved in throes on the ground. Pure and synth alike were distracted, and both sides looked to her writhing form. The synths, however, were not distracted long. Lacking in, but not devoid of individual conscience, they tolerated the pain better, and before she had stopped moving, they attacked. Two on each man's back, the remainder piled on top of Kim, tearing at her.

Two people trying to gain killing space on one man's back doesn't generally work out well. Ron elbowed one of those on his back in the gut, which sent the other off and into his sword. The torque on his body spun him over whether he wanted it to or not, and he used this to his advantage, wiping his assailants off on the floor. Len took a much more direct approach, and both his attackers fell to the ground with slits in their throats. Josh was facing away from a close wall, and all he had to do was accelerate into it. Both synths dropped off and he only had to turn around, his sword at ready, and they were beheaded.  
None of them knew that these actions caused Kim to fall into a deep trance.

> The pain was excruciating. No longer just the physical pain of her genetic inheritees' wounds and death, but the pain of a million disconnected thoughts pounding through her head. It must have been because she was so physically close to them. She saw and felt herself falling into her best friend's sword, her lover cutting through her neck, twice at once, and the mysterious man who might be neither a friend nor stranger stabbing her in the heart. Those images weren't what pained her though. One chain of thought smacked hard into the very paradigm of her existence. Her Genius, her guiding spirit, shattered, She was free to see. The synthetic beings she loathed were torn between good and evil; They didn't know which they were, or how to be either. They were controlled entirely by others, and killed because otherwise they would die. That was how it was, and it now made a chilling sense.
> 
> Another mind had a presence here too. It disturbed her that she could perceive that it felt the same way as the drones, but had a tinge of hope in self-direction on top of it. Its trust in hope was almost completely gone, though there was something there that called, seemingly crying for help.
> 
> Wandering back to the synth's thoughts, there was an air of death about them. Their soulless existence didn't want to be alive. All she could do was pity them. There was a power building up through them, too. Yes, something that could be used. She drank of the power, and a recently departed memory came back to her. She had a being. She had a name. She was Kim!

The pile of synths flew from Kim's body. Eyes closed, growling softly, she rose to her feet. She opened her eyes, and they burned with a green flame. Kim screamed again, but this time, it was not a shriek of pain. It was the Primal scream. Death. There was no Good, no Evil, just purpose. The synths, too, screamed a welcome to their own death. They burned away in a green and red flame. Kim closed her eyes again, and when they slowly opened, her eyes were still aflame, but they were human.

She felt the tortured soul she'd found drift to the ground behind her. She turned to see Shego rise to meet her eyes. They both took defensive stances, Shego's hands aflame, Kim as determined as ever. Their steely eyes could have destroyed worlds.


	9. Shego: an Epiphany

"How did you do that?" Shego growled, "You can't have done that."

"Anything's possible, for a Possible," Kim, circling around with her opponent, recited, "haven't you got that yet?"

"It was supposed to be possible only for you do die!"

"It wasn't what I felt like doing. However, they wanted to die."

"You killed them!" Shego's hands now burned a brighter flame. Sparks jumped from hand to hand and electricity crackled up her arm. She finally charged at Kim.  
The ground was indeed hard, and it hit her face first. Kim hadn't moved, hadn't reacted, but then dodged even later than should have been feasible.

Now Kim relaxed. She dropped her fighting stance, and spoke sincerely to Shego.

"You feel the same way about yourself as they did," she said, "but with some kind of hope. What drives you, Shego?"

As a reply, Shego simply lunged at Kim again. Kim side-stepped her, and planted an elbow in her back, driving Shego to the ground. She twisted her around so that they were facing each other.

"What _drove_ you? You don't want to be evil, I felt that. You're lost, like they were lost. Why do you beat yourself? Why do you want to die?"

Shego scowled. "You can't possibly know what's inside my head. You can't possibly know what _they_ were thinking."  
She pushed Kim off of her violently and, jumping to her feet, struck out with a flaming hand.

Kim caught Shego's hand in her own, and twisted around to press Shego against a wall, her other hand now stuck behind her back. "Yet somehow, I do." she said, pressing the fingers of her other hand against her foe's neck.

"If you know, then do it." replied Shego in a soft but angry voice.

The onlookers watched in horror as Kim, remembering the feeling of the power and drawing from her own pain gripping Shego's hand, willed a similar flame into the fingertips of her right hand. Pushing further into Shego's throat, they began to glow green. Shego lifted her head and closed her eyes, smiling eerily....

They were surprised again. Kim was tackled to the ground. As Shego sank to her knees and coughed up a little blood, Kim rose to all fours, and was lifted to kneel, her head raised back, a knife to her throat. She grimaced as her blood welled around the blade.

"I'm going to need her alive." growled Da Hand, standing Kim up against him.

Ron and Josh drew their swords simultaneously. Holding them prepared to skewer the man both, they stalked carefully the nightmare they shared. 

"It would hardly take a slip to end her precious life," Len warned them, and then whispered something into Kim's ear.

She acknowledged this by stamping her heel into his foot, and then twisting out of his grip, she shoved him to the floor. Ron and Josh charged toward him, but he was on his feet again soon, sword at ready. The teens combined possessed not his swordsmanship, and he blocked Ron's swing and parried Josh's thrust right out of his hand. The short sword went flying into the ceiling. Ron prepared to fight him one to one, but Kim laid a hand on his shoulder.

"Don't risk it," she started, but her attention was caught by something else.

"Why didn't you finish it?!" yelled Shego, hands aflame again, approaching them. She was almost within striking distance of Josh, when Ron grabbed him and the three teens ran, Kim kicking Da Hand to the ground as they left. Shego ran after them.

"Let them go." croaked Da Hand, pushing himself to his knees. For what reason she knew not, Shego did. She stopped and walked back to Da Hand.

"So, who the hell are you?" she asked.

"Does it matter?" the reply came from Drakken, who, walking up to Da Hand's side, laid a hand on his shoulder. "Have you considered a life of villainy?" he asked the man.

"Have you considered _this_?" was Da Hand's reply as he stood. The cut was not so clean as he'd wanted but Drakken was just as dead. His lifeless body fell to the floor.

"I think it does matter." sighed Shego, looking down at Drakken's body. She looked up to where Da Hand should have been. She looked around. The only living thing she saw was DNAmy entering the room.

"Oh, Hunnybunny!" she exclaimed, running over to Drakken. "Never mind, we can fix this." A chiding tone, her hands on her hips.

"No, we can't." Shego stated, "He's dead."

"Yes we can, it's just a little re-animation...."

"You don't understand." replied Shego, kneeling down and placing a hand on his chest. A green flame shot down her arm, and Drakken's body burst into flame. "He's been blacklisted." she said, standing.

"Oh." said Amy. "I found these," she started again, "one's addressed to you." She handed Shego an envelope and bustled of, tearing her own.

Shego opened it, and read the note inside. Then she scrunched it up and set and burned it. "An evil heart gloats over the kill," she mumbled, apparently reciting, "I never did that...." A little louder, she asked the world, "Leonard James Da Hand? Lenny Da Hand? Isn't he dead?"

* * *

Author's notes: 

> Stay tuned for the next chapter, which includes a "shower scene" (G-rated. You're gonna have to wait to find out how).  
Sorry to disillusion people with such a short and one sided battle scene. I had it planned like this for a while.


	10. Coffee Break

Josh shook his head, closed his eyes, and pinched himself. "What just happened?" he asked.

"Well, we dropped into the thankfully closed-pipe sewer tunnels, switched to some secret underground access roads, and came up through my basement." replied Kim.

"I think he meant before that bit," supplied Ron, "as in, back at Drakken's lair."

"Well, that would be a question I don't have an answer to. That man confuses me – what side is he on?"

"Not him," said Josh, "What was _your_ deal?"

"Yeah. What happened back there?" Ron concurred, "You went all crazy like, and then your clones set on fire and then – you were going to kill Shego?"

Kim closed her eyes and hung her head. "I don't quite know. I wish I did. It was ... weird, beyond all belief. I don't want to talk about it right now."

Josh was about to protest, but Ron had known Kim for much longer. "If she says she doesn't want to talk, she has good reason for it." he advised. "Look, we're all covered in blood - we should really clean up."

"You know where the bathroom is, Ron. I'm sure you can show Josh." said Kim, sitting down on her desk chair.

"Ladies first," offered Josh.

Kim smiled slightly and opened her eyes. "That may not be such a good idea," she said.

"You need it, KP," insisted Ron.

"Ron," Kim protested, "You know how long I take. You guys go first."

"But it's eti- uh,"

"Etiquette," Josh supplied.

"Right, etiquette!" Ron grinned, "You can't fight etiquette!"

"Right." said Kim, sarcastically. "Well, seeing as how you two are being so persistent...." Kim left the room. She came back shortly after with a bathrobe and towel in hand, and paying no attention to the fact that the boys were still there, dumped them on the bed and started to undress.

As she pulled her shirt off, the the boys turned away hurriedly. "Coffee?" asked Ron. Josh nodded, and they edged out of the room.

"Does she normally just do that after a mission?" asked Josh in the kitchen.

"Is the Josh man jealous?" teased Ron, grinning.

Josh punched him hard in the abdomen. "That's my girlfriend you're talking about there."

Ron, only slightly winded, pushed himself up from the bench. He shook his head, and closing his eyes as though sighing, he jabbed Josh back in the stomach. "Ease up, man - I'm kidding. Look, we're best friends, nothing more," Ron took on a slightly more serious tone, "but I do hold her close, so you'd better not hurt her. Ever."

"Right." Josh croaked from the floor. Ron may have looked scrawny, but there was more force behind that jab than Josh had received before - he'd been pushed not only to the ground, but also all the way across the floor and into the bench on the other side. He pulled himself from the floor, and opened the fridge.  
Handing Ron the milk, Josh tried to lighten the mood he'd fouled. "That's one mean punch you pack." he stated.

"I guess it's just one of those things I picked up on the way." Ron replied, "Sugar?"

Josh shook his head. Ron handed him a cup, and they sat on opposite sides of the breakfast table. "So, any idea what Da Hand is on about?" he asked.

"Something weird," replied Ron, "let's not talk about it without KP. She's good at these things."

There was a rap at the door. Ron and Josh looked each other in the eye, seeming to discuss something without words. Ron then stood up, and headed up the stairs.

In Dr's. Possible's bedroom, Ron headed to the drawers on one side of the bed. He shook the handle up the top drawer a bit, then twisted it about a half turn. He slid the board on the top of the drawers back to reveal a compartment _behind_ the top drawer. There were two guns there - an immobilisation ray and a glock. He took the immobilisation ray, and then the hand gun as well, just in case. He also retrieved the Lotus Blade from Kim's room.

Going back down the stairs, the immobilisation ray ready, he nodded to Josh who was at the door. Josh opened it.

"Hello, uh, Joshua," said Dr. Director, "I presume from the fact that you're here, that Kim _is_ home?"

"Who are you?" asked Josh, startled. He hadn't expected to see someone he neither already knew nor had met in the last 24 hours.

"She's cleaning up," Ron replied, putting the ray gun down, "come in, Dr. D."

"Thank you, Ron." Dr. Director smiled as she entered. "I'm Dr. Director of Global Justice, Mr. Mankey. Normally I don't tell civilians that, but I get the impression you've become _involved_." she indicated the blood on his clothes.

"Coffee?" asked Ron, leading the way into the kitchen. He put the weapons down on the table on the way past.

"Thankyou. Two sugars." replied Dr. Director, eyeing the Lotus Blade as she sat down.

"What's the sitch?" asked Ron, bringing Dr. Director's coffee.

"Something has cropped up that may be disturbing to this town," she replied. Holding up a photograph that looked distinctly like Da Hand, but with long hair, she continued, "I suspect you _have_ seen this man?"

* * *

> Sorry this chapter was so long coming, but I had exams, and some coding stuff, and blah, blah, blah, yadda, yadda, yadda, ad infinitum. The next chapters will be here much quicker.  
See, G-rated "shower scene"! By way of talking about having showers. Of course, the next bit was PG - I suddenly decided that I needed an external movie-culture reference (This is becoming quickly a game of spot the chapter with no cultural references).  
About the shortness of the previous chapter, or lack thereof. The statement about "Shortest chapter by far" was dead wrong - I forgot how short the first few had been; In my head they were the same chapter. In case you hadn't noticed, I changed formats around the sixth chapter. That and they just got longer. Now they got shorter again - I probably would have tacked this chapter onto the end of the last one after a rule break if I'd had it finished then. Left you with a double hangover ;-P (Not exactly cliffhangers, but loose threads for sure).  
**In the next chapter**: Nudity and fight scenes! Fight scenes that should logically have nudity in them! Kung-Fu in bathrobes! Stay tuned!


	11. Revealed

Kim sank down into the water. She'd opted for a bath instead of a shower, because she could relax into the bath, and if she decided to stay in there a while, and Josh or Ron got impatient, they could always use the shower. After all, Josh was her boyfriend, and Ron was, well, Ron - it was hard to call to mind just how often they'd had to change in the middle of a mission with nothing to hide behind, and both had become quite skilled at not actually seeing the other's body. She was regretting her choice now, however, because the water was a dull red. She would never have believed there was that much dried blood on her, but letting her hair into the water had proved otherwise, and she was left wondering how much of it was her own.

"All of it, I guess," she sighed, "In one sense or another. Well, except for Shego's." Indeed, the only ones who seemed to have lost any blood in the battle were the synthetic aberrations that had stolen her identity, Shego, and herself. Somehow, Ron and Josh had come out unscathed - physically at least. She could only assume that Da Hand hadn't been injured, either.

What was with Mr. Da Hand, anyway? she wondered. First telling her that she would need to kill, and then not letting her do it. As though he had some _use_ planned for her foe. She shuddered to think that perhaps the reason why she wasn't dead was because he had some purpose for her, as well. As she wondered whose side this man was on, or if he was on one at all, he began to seem more villainous than anyone she'd ever fought, even though he didn't for the most part act like a villain.  
"What's your game, Da Hand?" she asked the Universe.

Kim's thoughts now turned to what had happened on the inside of her head. What she'd learned about the synthetic copies of herself was astounding. What she'd learned about Shego shocked her. But why had it rocked her own world so, that she'd actually try to kill someone? Destroying the synths had been no big, she had after all destroyed clones of herself before just by spraying them with soda, and she had understood how lost and without life they actually were. Shego, however, was another true human being. She had a soul and lived life - and Kim had been about to kill her. Once again, she didn't know whether to hate or thank Da Hand for stopping her. What confused Kim most of all, though, was how she felt now. She could feel that it almost no longer mattered to her the difference between life and death. The decision on whether to terminate another's life was a line she'd stood on, oh, so many times, and it might have been so much easier for her if she _had_ killed, but something fundamental in her thoughts had stopped her. She knew that it wasn't there any more.

A lack of sleep was now overcoming Kim, and she didn't bother much to fight it. She sank slowly into a subconscious state, and further into her bath, even hoping that sleep would be a release from these troubling thoughts.

It was not to be. A gunshot woke her from approaching slumber, and she sat up quickly, spilling the rusty liquid over onto the floor. She climbed out of the bath, red and soapy water dripping from her naked body like rain off an orchid leaf. Pulling on the bleached robe, she ran out into the hall, stopping in her parents room to collect her mother's emergency handgun from under her lamp, and she raced down the stairs, cocking the weapon, ready to do anything.

She stopped suddenly when she saw the scene at the base of the stairs. There was Josh, with some kind of ray gun. Dr. Director was holding her own weapon, a plasma gun, aimed and ready. Ron was holding a very precisely aimed Glock, that was smoking and steaming as the barrel cooled. And there was Shego, one hand raised in a fist, flaming green, dripping a silver liquid that steamed as it made contact with the air, and was solid by the time it hit the ground, pellets bouncing off the front door step. Kim put her own weapon down as Shego unfolded her hand and dropped the rest of the lead, a solid mould of the inside of her fist, to the ground. The nickel bullets from a Beretta would be of no use, if Shego could catch and destroy shots from a Glock.

"I'm not here for a fight," started Shego, but Kim was already running. Shego was soon on the ground, and the inexorable hurting ensued.

Kim fought hard and fast, never pausing to let Shego get a hit in. Not that it would have mattered - Shego didn't even flare her hands, and only tried to block everything that Kim threw at her. Her blocks were not always successful, and Kim managed to land a few nasty blows on Shego's breast and stomach, and even cut her face with her fingernails.

Shego started to try and speak again, but Kim took this as an opening, and swatted her hard onto the ground, taking a boxing stance, unusual for her.

"Get up." commanded Kim, sneering, but Shego didn't. She lay on the ground, occasionally spitting out some blood, hoping that Kim still would not attack a prone target, although aware that it may not anymore be the case - she had, after all, just cut Shego off not with a witty retort, but by not even letting her speak. Kim decided she'd waited too long, and moved to finish Shego off where she lay, when a breeze brought something to her attention.

Kim looked up to see the entire street, many of whom had stepped out of their homes to see what the gunshot they'd heard was, staring at her. She looked down at her open robe, flapping in the wind, her private places, still moist and dripping made public, and her whole body went redder than the stains on the inside of her robe. She was surprised as a pair of green hands moved around from behind her, closing her robe and tying the sash.

"I only want to talk with you," Shego uttered.

"Have you considered that maybe **I** don't want to talk with **you**?" snapped Kim, angrily, turning to face her. She was confounded again to see that Shego's face was no longer covered in blood.

Shego sighed. "I was hoping you'd be more reasonable than that," she admitted.  
She decided to make another push for court. Discarding her gloves, Shego pressed three fingers against the scab under Kim's neck. Closing her eyes, she let the green energy flow.

Kim's jaw dropped as the scab closed, and the scarring around it disappeared. "So, that's what the green glow does?" she asked, confused. She had only ever seen it used for destruction before.

Shego laughed. "All the Go team glows have two sides," she elucidated, "For the blue and purple glows, it's in how they are used, and for the red and green glows, it's more explicit. The red glow can also be used to meld parts of something broken together."

Kim furrowed her brow. All thoughts of fighting the woman she faced deferred, she asked, "The others?"

"Green can rip or repair, you've seen that; Either way, it provides in itself an extra strength, too. I should think it's fairly obvious for the other two," the green girl continued, "Purple can be used to get into small spaces like into a collapsed building, or to make obstacles like rubble more manageable, or it can be used for espionage or even more perverted purposes. For blue, it's very simple - you can use your strength to help or hurt, like anyone else, just there's a lot more of it."

Kim pondered over her foe for a moment. Finally, her thoughts came to a resolution. "What did you want to talk about?" she asked, motioning Shego inside.

* * *

> 'What?!' you say, 'Kim and Shego speaking sincerely? A lighter side to the Go team green glow? Am I smoking crack?!' Well, no, depressing though you may find it, I'm not. Yes, I did make up that bit with the Go team glows, but you have to admit, it makes a bit of sense. Well, more sense than "Cybertronic Cheese" (-cough- Shameless "band" plug! -cough-. Google for it if you're curious, was the first result last time I checked).  
As promised, though, we had the nudity, and the fight scenes, **with** the logical evidence for nudity in them, and even the Kung-Fu in bathrobes - well, because as far as I know, Kim normally fights Kung-Fu style, and she **was** in a bathrobe.  
_**Next Chapter**_: Will I add underline to this subtitle as well?! What's on Shego's mind?! What does Da Hand have to do with GJ?! Will **Kim's naked body** be broadcast over the Internet?! Is the author actually insane, or is he just faking it?! Find out in the next instalment of _KP: Revelations_!
> 
> fanfiction.net has some really weird disallowances.... Why can't I have an asterisk, I wonder?


	12. Question Time in the House

"Shego," started Dr. Director, "what do you think-"

"Hi, cos'," the green girl cut in, "You're here because you know about Da Hand. An anonymous tip?"

"It was you, wasn't it?" Dr. Director scowled. "What do you hope to achieve? There is no way you could possibly even start to hope for a pardon."

"Oh, I wouldn't want that. I mean, it's so much fun proving that theoretically impossible to escape from jails are cake-walk for the pro. Anyway, I gave you the tip. I'd be grateful, personally."

"Many people back at HQ would be happy to let this slide," replied Dr. Director, "and as such I'm only here because it's Kim's hometown, and she _should_ be able to keep an eye on things. I'm not convinced it's him. You have to admit, there's a lot of evidence against it. His death 5 years ago, for a start."

"Do you really believe he didn't get off that plane?" Shego wasn't giving up. "Of all of the 300 people on board, he was the only one who didn't survive it hitting the ocean? None of those suckers remembered how they came to be on that island. Kinda' screams suspicious to me."

"We concluded that he rescued the other passengers and sacrificed himself doing so. It's the kind of crazy thing he'd do."

"Nuh-uh." Shego shook her head. "Lenny's a survivor. There was a way out of that, and he took it."

Dr. Director pinched the bridge of her nose. Looking up, she took a sip of her coffee, and proceeded to speak very carefully. "You are no longer a crime fighter, Shego. You're the opposite in fact, and on that point I would have to say that I can't trust your word. Also, while I understand that the Go team were in direct contact with Da Hand while he was hiding from us, you never personally met him. I'd hardly say you're able to judge his character. I, on the other hand, was his peer while he was with GJ. I would think I'd know my partner. He did think of others first. Heck, it was almost his philosophy."

"That's not my point," started Shego, but she was cut off there.

"Can we just pause this while I go and get some clothes on?" Kim asked. "Ron, get Shego some coffee. And try to make sure no-one breaks anything."

"Whatever you say, KP." Ron said, smiling, as she left up the stairs.

Stepping back into the bathroom, Kim drained the bath, and then removed her robe, stepping into the shower. She turned the cold water on only, and let it rinse over her for about a minute.

"So, Da Hand is of interest to GJ?" she said to herself as the water flowed, then adding with extreme sarcasm, "That's just peachy." She turned the tap off when the water streaming off her body was clean to her satisfaction, and stepping out of the shower, she picked up the robe and discarded it in the washing basket in the corner. She grabbed the towel she'd brought in with her the first time, and wrapped herself in it, wondering what Shego's brothers' association with the mysterious man was.

Back in her bedroom, Kim decided against putting another set of mission clothes on — they would probably encourage her to go out and do something stupid.  
"Why did Shego tip off Dr. Director to Da Hand?" she asked herself, selecting a pair of jeans and a lightly coloured loose-fit top. She tossed them on the bed, and grabbed some underwear from a drawer.  
"Actually, what's with Shego all round? She's acting real strange." The conversation with herself continued as Kim removed the towel and pulled her outfit on.  
Finally, after she'd towelled her hair off, and brushed it into her traditional part, she concluded to her mirror, "Something weird is going on."

She retrieved the Kimmunicator from her desk before leaving her room. "Wade! Hologram. Kitchen. Now," she said to it, and marched down out of her personal level.

In the kitchen, the scene had not changed in ten minutes. Dr. Director, coffee mug in hand, was with narrowed eyes watching Shego, who hadn't put her gloves back on, so for once was actually filing her _nails_ casually. Josh was strumming on an invisible guitar. Ron was leaning against the island bench, tapping out a simple rhythm on it, and observing the others' actions.

"Whoa! Wade!" Ron exclaimed as the hologram came through the door.

"_Holo_Wade," corrected Kim, entering the room behind the projection.

"Yay, it's geek boy," stated Shego with added sarcasm.

"We just so happen to be in need of a super genius, here," snapped Kim.

"It's your house, Kimmie," sighed Shego, "I guess you can do whatever you want."

"Well, I want answers," continued Kim. She gestured to Dr. Director and looked at Shego. "First up, what do you mean, 'cos'?" she queried.

Dr. Director decided to answer this one. "College buddies," she said, "We used to play pranks on the fraternities. Of course, we aren't on such great terms now."

"OK, next off the rank. Why did you tip Da Hand off to Global Justice, Shego? He _did_ save your life. I'm seriously doubting it has anything to do with any kind of good will."

"Well, let's start with 'He killed my employer', and work up, shall we? Or maybe because he stopped _you_ from killing me. Remember that, Princess? Somehow you knew that I felt like dying…."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" interjected Dr. Director, "Are you confirming that Da Hand is, in fact, in Middleton, miss Possible?"

"No," replied Kim sarcastically, "I'm trying to defend the integrity of my best friend Shego. What do _you_ think?"

"He could be an impostor, KP," stated Ron. "I mean, what kind of a super incredibly covert guy thing whatsit uses their real name like that?"

"Like what?" asked Dr. Director

"That's a good point, Ron," said Kim. She continued on, directing her next statement to Dr. Director. "Like writing it on the board of a class he's teaching."

Dr. Director blinked slowly. "One who wants you to think they're an impostor," she said together with Wade and Kim in response to Ron's question, the three of them slapping their hands to their respective foreheads.

"Great," continued Dr. Director, removing her hand but leaving it up in the air, "We have a rogue GJ agent on our hands, and he's already killed someone. What's worse, we don't know what he's been doing these last five years."

"Doi," Shego supplied at this point, shrugging her shoulders and extending her hands to the sides.

"I guess _that_ couldn't have been much more obvious," stated Kim. "The good news is, the person he killed was psychotically determined to be a bad guy. The bad news is, he threatened to kill _me_ some time before he did that…. Which brings me to my next question," she continued, now letting down her own hand – "who _is_ Leonard James Da Hand?"

Dr. Director took a deep breath.

* * *

> Ace, I don't recall at any point saying that Kim **saw** Shego heal her. In my writing, character-observer relationships are generally on a per paragraph basis, however may be interrupted by pure narrative at any time - what the reader saw was the viewpoint of the omniscryant narrator. Kim dropped her jaw because in such a sensitive area as the neck, you can feel things like scarring quite clearly. If it was healing that fast, you'd feel that too.  
OK, so I'm not actually going to deal with Kim's naked body and the internet. It was a fun question though. No, that scene will not be on the cover art in the case that I actually bother to do one.  
I'm not sure what's next, but you'll know when I've done it. I haven't finished concocting Len's back story yet, and seeing as how I have all of the currently main characters in one place except the mysterious one, I can't really divert to you anything else while I build it.
> 
> Two day pauses now, here's how it's going to work:  
I don't have any more exams, so I'm pretty much full time doing my own thing now. This is not dedicated purely to fanfiction writing though, as I do in fact do other things. I will alternate on days of my scheduled computer time doing some "commissioned" coding and continuing this fic. However, I will try as I can do give you a chapter for every day, with the possible exception of this next Tuesday when I have an appointment with a professional, and I will also be deciding on the fate of the next semester of my University career. This should hopefully mean that the story is completed within another fortnight, or perhaps a little over. There's somewhere between 12 and 18 chapters left, excluding the epilogue.


	13. Heroes, Criminals, and Justice

> **Pre note**: If you have any music by Brainbug, especially "Rain" (original mix preferable), "Benedictus", and/or "Nightmare" (If you have a clean copy of the original 'sinister strings' mix, that one is the greatest, but I had a club mix on), put it on while you read this — It's what I wrote this chapter to. If you don't, then, _dude_, you're missing out! You're also missing out if you don't have the album "Aura" by The Alpha Conspiracy, the feature of my normal playlist, which I'd switched back to in the last phase of writing this chapter.  
"What will you say, as the rain fills up your mind?" (Brainbug / Rain)  
And now, in the ring of fate, Prepare yourselves for (drum roll)  
**The Amazing Chapter 13** (fan fare)  
Also known as "_the chapter where I traditionally accidentally give the game away and/or run out of plot ideas_."

* * *

Staring at the ceiling, Dr. Director weighed up how best to answer Kim's latest question. It wasn't one she wanted particularly to answer, but the teen hero deserved to know what she was in the middle of. She then looked down, and motioned to everyone as though she was about to tell a story. "Let's start with the basics of what I know for fact," she started, and looked up.  
"Da Hand is not his real name. That's the name GJ assigned him when he opted, like most recruits, to be anonymized."

"So you called this guy 'The lion-hearted conqueror'? Great idea, that." The interjection had been made by Josh.

"Huh?" Kim looked at him confoundedly, her eyes wide, one brow raised, and her mouth half open; It was intentional – her emotional cast and facial features meant that she could employ this expression well. She normally used it on Ron when she actually didn't really want to know what he was on about.

"Etymology of names," replied Josh, "Leonard – lion hearted, James – usurper or conqueror. I guess we're lucky they didn't make his last name 'Di Atlas.' Conqueror of Hand; Heh." Josh chuckled as he finished his explanation.

"Whatever." Kim shook it off, closing her eyes as though trying to get rid of a light headache. Again, it was normally something she used with Ron's whacked out theories on life, the Universe, and how she was so fantastically great and he was such a loser. She was beginning to realise how it was that Ron and Josh could be fighting one minute and friends the next when they were nowhere near as close as they should to be like that.

Dr. Director scowled at Josh. "_As I did_," she continued, looking to the rest of her congregation again, "he kept his real given names." – Josh grimaced apologetically at this stage – "What's more surprising is that I never found out what his real name actually is, and I suspect no-one at HQ ever did. I have no idea why he would still be using his GJ name, but I can guess why he wouldn't want to be using his own.  
"He was there at Global Justice pretty much as far back as I was. He found – I guess I could call us 'them' at the time, being a rookie myself – not the other way around. He was like that — no-one ever had any idea where he came from. Normally that's grounds for pretermination, but his skills were such that the directors just couldn't bring themselves to waste them.  
"Instead of being brain-locked and dropped in a mental care facility like we normally do the people who 'discover' us so, he was recruited."

"Brain-locked?" asked Kim.

The HoloWade explained this one. "It's when part of your memory is kept from you. It's better than total brainwashing in case the people with the key, in this case GJ, decide they want to use you after all."

"There's a downside," Dr. Director continued, "It can have serious repercussions, such as becoming permanent, or worse cause random parts of the brain and CNS to cease function. Either way, if that happens, it results in a kind of mature-age autism most frequently, but also other sometimes terminal mental diseases. That's why they didn't do it to Len, it was too much of a risk. Anyway, he and I were assigned to each other as training partners, and thus developed such a trust in each other that we chose to become partners on mission.…"

> The two agents looked out over San Pablo bay. "Bett Erwin" and "Len Da Hand" were on their first mission, and they were determined to get the results. It was a test, and as such there was little chance of them being sufficiently hurt that they could not go straight back into training, but they didn't know that.
> 
> "They're not going to show, Jimmy," stated Bett, "It's been over an hour."
> 
> "Just wait, Beth," he replied, not even looking down the road, but out over the bay instead.
> 
> Right on cue, a black sedan with darkened windows pulled up on the road behind them. They turned their backs to the bay, and walked to the car. Len stood station at the front, no weapons drawn, but making it plainly clear that he could have one at hand whenever the need arose. The illusion was better than textbook, and the rear window was opened as Bett leaned down.
> 
> "Why does the dolphin open its gills?" asked the window.
> 
> Bett was not expecting this. She waivered, and looked aside. "Dolphin," she muttered. This was not the protocol they'd been given!
> 
> "I'm waiting," said the window.
> 
> Bett panicked. "Look, have you got the goods?" she asked, "We have the money."
> 
> Not far away, in an almost identical black sedan, in fact the one that Bett was supposed to be 'buying' from, a special ops agent smacked his hand to his forehead. "Bad move, Betty," he said. He turned to his partner "What do we know about dolphins? Do we know anyone who uses something like that?"
> 
> "No, we don't have any protocols like that listed," was the reply.
> 
> "Shit." Dr. Director had heard this transfer over the radio. "Shit, shit, shit, with a side of crap. We have to get the rookies out of there now! There's no-one nearby, so you're on your own. Best of luck. We need those two."
> 
> "OK," the first op said, "now that our worst nightmare has started, what's the plan for the rest of it?"
> 
> "D has these two on priority," replied his partner. "That means we forget about the potential leads."
> 
> "Right."
> 
> Back with Bett and Len, it was as bad as they feared. "Wrong answer, chicky-baby," was the window's reply, and suddenly there was an assault rifle in Bett's face. "Who are you with?" asked the window as the driver's door opened and Len was machine-gunned down.
> 
> At least that's what would have happened, if Len hadn't turned into a light blue and silver shadow in the air. Bett found herself around the other side of a grass hill.
> 
> "Beth! Are you OK?" Len himself had blood running down his chin, bleeding from his mouth.
> 
> "I'm fine, Jimmy," she replied. It was true — she _was_ only a little disoriented.
> 
> A car came screeching past, forced to oversteer on the way around the corner, brakes hard on and locked. It spun right around so it was facing the opposite direction on the road, and the two special ops agents rushed out the front doors, guns ready.
> 
> "What the –?" the man on the other side of the window that Bett had been speaking with was cut off, due to a bullet checking into his head.
> 
> The GJ examiner, leaning over the back seat of his own vehicle, gun pointed through the rear windshield, was confused. "Where are the rookies?" he asked himself. Into his radio, he yelled, "There's no sign of the rookies!"
> 
> "We're on the other side of this ridge," the radio replied. The examiner sighed heavily at the sound of Bett's voice. He still didn't how they got there, but looking behind him, he saw that they were, indeed, out of harms way.
> 
> "The scene's clear," he spoke into the radio, "let's blow this scene and get the hell home."
> 
> The specials ops agents were on the other side of the drug pushers' vehicle already though, and still had only the one of them down. And then the _very_ worst of their nightmares began. The red-haired male operative was gunned down.
> 
> "No!" his partner screamed. She rushed over to his side. "Kim," she said, "stay with me, Kim."
> 
> The man blinked, and looked up at her. "Ron…." his voiced trailed off and he smiled as he sighed. Then he went limp in her arms.
> 
> "No," sobbed Ron, "no, this can't be."
> 
> "Ron," the examiner spoke into the radio, examining Kim's life signs, his face fading into stone. "His vitals aren't good," and they weren't at all. Then they hit the deadline. "Ronnie, he's dead. You have to finish the operation and we'll get out of here. We can't bring him back with us."
> 
> "Is this my fault?" asked Bett, who had, with Len, got into the examiner's car. She was extremely worried, and upset.
> 
> "It's no one's fault," replied the examiner, "just things went wrong. This was supposed to be a test. You had the right protocol, just the wrong people. If you'd tried that on me, you'd probably still pass the test." Turning back to the radio, he commanded the blonde girl again. "Veronica! Time's short. Finish them. We have to get out of here!"
> 
> Ron had other plans though. Sure, she'd finish it. "You killed Kim Perceptible," she said slowly and loudly, walking towards the druggies' car. "She's my best friend. You're going to pay for that." She unclipped a grenade-like device from her belt, and flicked the pin off. Bullets grazed her side, but she didn't notice them.
> 
> "Oh shit!" cried the examiner, staring at the device. "Bett, take the wheel and get us the hell out of here now."
> 
> "What about Veronica?" the girl protested.
> 
> "She's dead," replied not the examiner, but Len. "Drive. Drive fast."
> 
> Bett trusted Len's word enough that she did so immediately, although she was confused as to how Len could conclude that the woman was dead already. She counted to the end of the maximum 5 second fuse, and still didn't hear an explosion. "That wasn't a grenade?" she asked.
> 
> "Grade 6 biological weapon," replied the examiner. "You're not cleared to know, and trust me, you don't want to. It'll oxidise and have become harmless in about half an hour, but we're almost still too close." Now he spoke into the radio. "Dr. Director? We need this road closed **Now**."
> 
> "Already done," replied the radio.
> 
> Behind them, they heard the muffled sound of a petrol tank being melted and scattered around the landscape at high speed by its contents.
> 
> "I hope Defeatable was smart enough to put herself in that explosion," said the examiner, "those gas bombs are horrible. She doesn't deserve to die like that."

"That was seven years ago," stated Dr. Director. Her eyes were moist. "Ronnie was real good to me.…" she mumbled to herself.

"I've seen him do that," said Ron, "Actually, more I've seen him finish doing that. He knocked me out immediately afterwards, I think. The next thing I knew, I was chained to a wall next to Mankey. At least I think it was him. I remember the blue outline."

"He told me afterwards that that was a Celtic magic," Dr. Director explained. "It takes a lot out of him, but by the time he ran from GJ, he could move a mile in a second. It makes it possible for him to see into the future a fair way as well, otherwise he'd never be able to react in time — He said that it felt like train-surfing when you're drunk. You feel like you're moving that fast, and you can process that much of what's going on."

"Of course, I've never been drunk," said Kim, "or train-surfing."

"Yes you have," accused Shego, "with your mother, even."

"Oh yeah. On a bullet train while riding an ATV."

"Well that's probably about the same, then," stated Dr. Director, "Considering he was only talking about normal passenger trains." 

"An all terrain vehicle? I don't remember that," Shego said, resuming her conversation with Kim.

"It was before you and Drakken so _rudely_ interrupted me trying to slow the train. Did you ever get it to stop, by the way?"

"Yeah," Shego snickered, "by clawing into the tracks behind it. You're supposed to brake brakes, Kimmie, not break them."

"I only broke the lever!" exclaimed Kim. "The brakes must have been broken already!"

"Yeah, sure, Princess. Heh, that would've made Drakken's day if I'd told him that all he needed to do was wait for the train to fall off the tracks of its own accord."

"Speaking of interruptions," Dr. Director said before pausing to catch everyone's attention. "It's because of the psycho-temporal effects that he knew about the gas bomb. Apparently those effects remain for about 30 seconds after he's gone back to normal speed, but can be misleading. For example, in that incident, he thought we were going to die because of the gas as well. That's actually why he was bleeding out of his mouth, it turns out; The spells affect him physically as well as mentally and his most vulnerable point has always been just after completing them."

"That's bullshit," growled Shego, "he beat the crap out of my three best soldiers right after pulling some stunt that got him into the middle of Drakken's lair. Then, **then**, he pulled another shifty and disappeared right before I was going to nail him to a wall. Took my favourite soldier with him."

"He cut her in half in the police station," Kim said, detachedly. "Spells, _plural_?"

"I don't know what they all are," replied Dr. Director, "But I've seen him do a couple of things I wouldn't have thought were possible. His reaction times, too… I've only seen one person match that kind of time and she's touted to be able to do anything." Dr. Director winked at Kim, who blushed.

"In the police station?" asked Shego, "That's a teensy bit brassy. Wait, how do you know that?"

"I just so happened to have been framed for homicide. I was spending the night in the cell, as it were. You should know about that, Shego."

"They framed you for _homicide_ to get your phone thingy?" laughed Shego, "Now, that's what I call **over**kill. I had very little to do with that."

"It's a sad state indeed when policemen can't even investigate a robbery at a jewelry store without being killed," replied Kim.

Dr. Director was confused by this. "You have an autographed get out of jail free card, Kim.…"

"No-one's above the law, Betty."

Shego started to count on her fingers. "Unlawful entry, _breaking_ and entering, destruction of property, _expensive_ property I might add, theft, unlicensed use of military-grade weapons, train surfing, driving without a license, attempted murder, mass homicide, and probably others, most multiple times. Do you want to re-think that statement, Princess?"

"What?!" Kim was quite shocked.

"She's right, Kim," said Dr. Director, "You have multiple offences, most criminal, some felonies, under you belt. In fact, you have a worse criminal record than Shego here. If you weren't … _you_, they'd probably have fried you by now, juvenile or not. Taking the law into your own hands is a highly dangerous and illegal business."

"How come no-one ever told me?" asked Kim, looking like her face was about to fall off.

"Uh, maybe because it was so obvious," supplied Wade.

"That, and you have an autographed get out of jail free card," added Dr. Director

Shego smirked. "You're not exactly the brightest cookie in the jar, are you, Kimmie?"

"Hey, go easy on the girl!" Ron cried. "She does what she can, and she takes a lot of shit. She doesn't need it from you." He pulled his chair closer to Kim, and put his arm around her shoulders. She flopped on to him, and he cuddled her closer.

Josh, on the other hand, seemed to have ceased all bodily functions. His was just sitting there, eyes wide. He slowly fell over backwards, chair and all. He didn't even notice when he hit the ground.

"Ooh, ouch," chittered a certain naked mole rat who'd just made the distance from Ron's house to Kim's. He then walked right over the top of Mankey's face. The boy still didn't react.

"Is he alright?" asked Dr. Director.

"He just hasn't had breakfast yet," said Ron, looking down at his friend, who climbed up onto the table and curled up in front of Ron, going back to sleep.

"No," stated Wade, "that looks more like a trauma-induced coma."

"Oh, you mean Josh?" said Ron, now looking down at him. "I think you broke him. Kim, too," he continued, caressing Kim's cheek. She didn't react to this, other than to sigh. This wasn't normal for when she had her eyes open, Ron thought. Then again, it wasn't something he generally did except for when they were on their way home from a mission and she was slowly falling asleep. As if she was reading his mind, she closed her eyes, and nestled into his neck, just like she would when the villain had got away. It was at times like these that Ron knew, being the one comforting the world's greatest hero, he was the luckiest person alive. Today, it brought him no joy.

Josh blinked. He then rolled off the chair, and rose to his feet. "If anyone wants me, I'll be taking a cold shower," he said, and all eyes were on him, with the exception of Kim's, as he walked across the room and to the door. He turned around to face everyone. "In liquid oxygen." He left up the stairs.

"I think we just had a demonstration of what happened to Da Hand happening to Kim here, but much faster," Dr. Director opined.

Kim, brushing Ron's hand away, opened her eyes and looked up at Dr. Director. "What do you mean?" she asked.

* * *

> Da Hand's story in chapter 13, as prophesised in numbers. Well, at the end of chapter 12, anyway. I was considering continuing writing from that point, so you'd have got your two chapters, but no dice. I hadn't worked out how to introduce Da Hand's backstory yet. So, here's 2900 or so words of one chapter, which is longer even than the epilogue. I suspect it's not going to be the longest. Might make up for there not being two chapters here, though. There won't be another incredibly long storytelling sequence, more will be told as Dr D. Flashbacks to specific details of events.  
Oh, do you like Betty's pre-Director name, BTW? Before you say that I keep making Len call her "Beth", not "Bett" this is on purpose - both are abbreviated forms of "Elizabeth", as is "Betty". In case you couldn't figure it out, they preferred not to use "Bett" and "Len" between themselves. This isn't the whole of Da Hand's backstory, just an introduction to how he started to be like he is. Duh, I'm here to give Hitchcock a run for his money.  
I hereby deny all claims you may make of Josh bashing. I am in fact one of only a handful of people, it seems, who doesn't think that Josh should just die and give up KP to Ron. Josh falling over backwards was in fact inserted for a sort of comic relief, and in the style of the intellectual variety of humour — the amusing part is supposed to be his lack of reaction, not that he fell over. It just so happened that Josh was the only person suitable to do this at the table. Spot the TV culture reference soon after, and you probably watch BBC comedy, and therefore you'll understand. Admittedly, the reference as used here doesn't have the sexual connotations.  
No, Wade does not magically appear. Any time I refer to Wade here, it's the HoloWade. He might turn up in person in the sequel if you decide me to write one.
> 
> Feedback on feedback time:  
WolfBane :- No, hence the "Suspense" part of the story. Well, I'm telling you now I guess, but thanks for reacting. I wasn't sure if it was still getting to anyone enough. ;-)  
GreenGal, you're absolutely right. I guess I wasn't really thinking about Ron. Although, I had been going to put a bit in there where Ron _didn't get Shego her coffee_ — In fact that was why I included the fact the Ron was smiling, he was about to drop it and grumble about Kim telling him to do something for Shego. I forgot. I guess that I thought that I had conveyed a enough tension when I was proofreading it.  
Ace, don't feel bad. Kim's tougher than just about everyone.


	14. You mean what?

> Leonard James Da Hand, Global Justice agent, stood watching carefully, awaiting his partner's signal. He and Erwin had been placed together in action again for the first after the incident on their competence exam 3 months ago. Both had excelled in this time, and neither was considered by anyone to be a 'rookie'.
> 
> "Position." It was Bett, over the radio.
> 
> Len shouldered his rocket launcher, and stepped out around the rock he was using as cover so that he could operate it. He knelt down to brace against the recoil, and fired an intentionally 'defective' rocket at the target's decoy, an ex-military warship. It left a conspicuous smoke trail in the air, just as designed. Len waited a few seconds, but apart from the rocket hitting its target and exploding, nothing happened. He fired off the remaining two, and then started to run along the seaside cliff.
> 
> "What are you doing, Jimmy?" asked Bett.
> 
> "Either they're incredibly stupid, or they know we're on to them," he replied. "I'm trying to convince them we're not. Stay alert, Beth."
> 
> "I've got something. It's tracking. They're on you!"
> 
> "Good," was Len's only response before the tracking cannon that Bett had identified proved to be the actual target, opening fire on what they believed to be the enemy — although they were at least one step behind the two GJ field operatives.
> 
> "Contact! Get out of there!" Bett screamed into the radio, aiming her own weapon onto the stationary source – a small passenger boat on which she'd have sworn it was impossible to make a chain-loading weapon look inconspicuous on. Yet, all she could do was gasp as automatic cannon fire obliterated the ground where her partner stood.
> 
> "What are you waiting for?" asked a familiar voice from right next to her, before exclaiming "Stop!" as she fired a cluster of mortar shells into the air. Len sunk down to his knees.
> 
> "Is something wrong?" Bett asked, knowing full well that there had to be.
> 
> "There's civilians on that boat," was the mumbled reply, "some are children."
> 
> Bett's eyes widened in alarm as Len collapsed to the floor. She noticed a blue glow out to sea, and looked back just in time to see 2 of the 5 shells explode mid air, a blue corona around them. The remaining 3 still did their job effectively though, as the entire boat erupted in a string of explosions, leaving a burning slick on the surface of the water. Bett looked back and saw that Len would not be stirring soon.

"The collateral report was 47 civilians killed, and 21 of those were children. He blamed himself for it, although no-one else did," explained Dr. Director, lowering her voice as she said it. "We were pretty much on every mission together from then on. I could see it every time something went wrong, even the slightest thing. He'd break a little. I asked him about it once; he said it was nothing. Fool me, I believed him."

Dr. Director told of more events in detail as everyone listened. There were failed hostage retrievals, one of which had ended in everyone being killed except for the two, of three, GJ agents. There was a transport interception mission where entirely the wrong vehicle had been not only stopped but destroyed, lacking the armour of the intended target, and the result had been a dead family of seven. A mistargeted anti-terrorist mission had, admittedly, entirely destroyed one terrorist organisation, but the one they should have been getting at had a chance to kill 60 more people because of it — because when GJ knocked on their door with an arsenal of heavy explosives, they found out that the civilians has been volunteered to house sit while they relocated to another country.

"So, the two of you killed more innocent people than bad guys, or even stopped? That's just great," said Kim, lifting her head from Ron's shoulder. She narrowed her eyes. "What does this have to do with what you said?"

"Well, I must point out that most of these were mistakes that we couldn't have avoided personally without blowing a lot of smoke up the board's arse. But the point is, Len always took it personally. Then he stopped seeing it as good guys vs. bad guys."

"Yeah, we know that bit already. Get to the point."

"5 and a half years ago, he quit Global Justice rather dramatically. I guess that he had a nervous breakdown, but reacted to it differently from most people. He reacted to most everything differently from other people.

"We were assigned a mission to infiltrate and destroy a terrorist group. As he'd been doing for a while then, he did his own research beyond the bounds of what was needed, right into the motives behind the people who's called for GJ's help. In the end, he refused the mission, and another group was assigned. He was placed in house detention – whatever they thought that would do – and I started reconditioning with a new partner. The group that was sent on the mission were successful.

"About a week later, an entire city was destroyed leaving thousands dead. Turns out that if the group that we were to infiltrate had been allowed to continue with their plans that number would have been about thirty. The same thirty that were found dead a few days later in one room, either stabbed or decapitated. There was a note there, it said 'See what happens when you don't look far enough?' and was signed by Da Hand. I haven't seen him since the day before he broke out of GJ's holding cells. No one saw or could determine how he managed it – the only damage to his cell was a burn mark on one wall."

Right then, Josh stepped into the kitchen. He was clean and dry, although he did look somewhat strange wearing some of the spare clothes that Kim kept in her wardrobe for those occasions when Ron and she came back from a mission and Ron needed some clothes that _weren't_ ripped, stained with blood, and smelling of sewer-water before being caught by his parents sneaking into his house at 3am. He walked over to Kim, and leaning down, he kissed her on the forehead.

"Is it alright if I go home?" he asked her, "I'm not used to this stuff, I'm tired, and, well" – he looked at Ron – "I'm not sure I have a place here, right now"

Kim actually looked for confirmation from Ron, who just shrugged, before replying. "Sure, if you don't think you can deal with this. We're not going to push you to do something you don't want to."

Josh kissed her again and left the room. Until the clicks and squeaks of the front door opening and closing, there was no sound beside his footsteps down the hall. The table turned their head to every footstep, and they simply stared through the wall at the door after it was closed. Then Shego shrugged and got back to filing her nails, Ron turned back and glared at Shego, and Dr. Director drew her breath, waiting for the question to be asked a third time.

Kim turned to face Dr. Director, her eyes even narrower than before, her temper flaring inside her. "Your point," she growled. "Are you asserting that I am going to start killing random people to get my job done?"

"Whoa, calm down there, Princess," interjected Shego before Dr. Director could respond, "she gets a bit edgy when you start to get angry with her."

Dr. Director closed her eyes and exhaled. "You're reacting to it in a different way than him, but I can see that something similar is now happening to your psyche," she said to Kim. "I hope you can handle it, but we'll be checking up on you every so often, just in case." She took a file folder from her satchel, and placed it on the desk. She opened it to a page titled "Kimberly Ann Possible" and put a check mark next to something that neither Kim nor Ron could read upside down and from that far away.

"Run a psychological profile on Kim Possible? Good luck," Shego smirked.

Dr. Director snarled and rolled her eyes, resting them on Shego. "There's a chance that she might come out of it the same way as Da Hand did. We don't want that to happen."

"You don't want her to disappear from public view, helping out non-government crime fighters and trying to fix up the world the way she sees it being destroyed? Or you don't want her to stop doing GJ's dirty work on occasion? Oh yeah, I've seen your fallout that's on her government file. Did you do that to your boyfriend, too?"

"Enough!" yelled Dr. Director, standing up quickly. She aimed her weapon at Shego's head. "You're going down, right here, right now!"

Shego simply ignited the hand she was filing the nails of. "Try it," she started, but Kim did something more astonishing.

"Put the gun down," she commanded, standing up. "One thing I've learned about Shego, is that if she says that much, she means what she's saying. She doesn't open her mouth without thinking about it first."

"Hold up! Kim Possible, _the_ Kim Possible, is threatening someone? With a _gun_?" asked Shego – and indeed, Dr. Director turned her head to find herself looking down the barrel of the Beretta. "The head of a government sanctioned 'justice' agency, and everything," Shego continued. "Let me get the popcorn!"

Kim glared at Shego before repeating, "put the gun down, Betty. Then I'd like you to explain your… _accusations_, or leave."

"Kim," Ron whispered, just loud enough for her to hear.

"Not a word," she warned.

"But–"

"Uh-uh," Kim chided.

"Right, not a word. Got it."

"You're not going to use that," stated Dr. Director.

"How confident are you about that? You have 10 seconds to work it out."

Dr. Director closed her eyes, and put the plasma gun on the table. Then she reached for the folder.

"Leave them," growled Kim, reaching for the papers herself with her free hand.

"If you touch them," warned Dr. Director, "you void your government protection. Future _and_ past. They'll come here with the largest force they can, and you'll be in prison until you're dead, and that's if you're lucky. 220 or so criminal violations, Kim. That's a big number. _And_ that's only what they have written down."

"Fine, whatever!" sighed Kim. "Take your damn files. Just go."

Dr. Director picked up the files and did so. "Don't come crying to me when you get yourself killed," were her final words as she closed the front door.

"Yeah, like that's gonna happen," retorted Kim.

"I'm impressed," remarked Shego. Looking at the gun in Kim's hand, "and disturbed. Picking up a gun a threatening someone with it wasn't something I'd expect you to do in a million years."

"Me neither," replied Kim, shuddering and setting the gun down on the table. "I figured the only time I'd ever pick up a real gun and point it at a _person_, it's be because Ron or someone needed that person to have a bullet in them right then. I expected it to be someone like _you_!"

"That makes three of us," said Ron. "You had me worried there, KP."

"What about geek boy?" laughed. Then the Holo-Wade snored briefly.

Kim squeaked, and looked at the Holo-Wade. Wade was snoring – he still wasn't adept to getting up at 3am. She let out a sigh of relief. "Thank goodness he didn't see that," she said. Then she turned back to Shego. "You seem to know more about Da Hand since he left GJ than Dr. Director wanted to admit?"

"Sorry, Princess," replied Shego, "I've told about all I know."

At this point, the phone's ring pierced the air. They'd been speaking with no background noise for the last 2 hours, so it was several decibels above their conversation levels, and made the three of them jump.

"Possible Residence," Kim answered in a bright tone.

"Everything's fine, mom," she lied to the phone. "How are things at the Lazy C? … That's good. Monday? I'll survive without you.… I can look after myself, mom. Love you too, mom! Bye!" She sighed in relief as she hung up.

"Didn't you promise you'd never lie again, Kimmie?" asked Shego sarcastically.

"Don't you start,"Kim replied bluntly.

"I'm gonna go get cleaned up," said Ron, making for the stairs. "I hope I can trust you two not to kill each other.…"

* * *

> I haven't updated in too long. The curse of the thirteenth chapter lives on. Actually, I didn't so much run out of plot ideas as hit a bottleneck in them coming through, and while I was trying to work out exactly what to put in this chapter, which was the only thing I _didn't_ have any of the details for, I was hit by a rather nasty stomach bug. Add to that the fact that has been too busy every time I've tried to do anything with it, and you have a recipe for inactivity. I should logically have the story finished by now according to my plan, but it just wasn't gonna happen. Heck, I didn't even get more than one chapter finished in this time. 2091 words though, so it's not _too_ bad! :D
> 
> I know that the story is getting harder to read at this point. Sorry. If it's any consolation, it's getting harder to write, as well. That's what happens when you start to insert lots of dialogue.
> 
> I realise that Kim is stepping further and further out of character, but this story is largely about change. There's some big ones still coming, and I guarantee you're not going to like at least one of them ;) In fact, you're probably going to hate it.
> 
> **Next chapter**: [Insert random plot deviation here]. I think we need some comic relief here. As such, I'm considering trying to get a ghost writer for the next chapter – I'm all out of plausible comic relief that fits this story. Email me if you're interested (if you want to, send your ideas and/or chapter if you're confident), and we'll see what happens. If I don't have any responses within 2 or 3 days (Seems harsh seeing as how I haven't updated in nearly a month, but it's because I really want to get this moving along again), I'll just put a super-sarcasm contest between Kim and Shego in or something.… Or, maybe you'd like a Ron Stoppable Shower scene ;) evil laughing


	15. The Mankey Monkey conspiracy

Josh whistled as he walked down the street. It wasn't that he wasn't worried, or that he had anything in particular to whistle about, just the world was missing any kind of ambient sound, and he needed to remedy that for himself. He never stopped to wonder why it might be that he didn't hear the sounds of traffic or bird song, or anything else.

Running out of tune, the boy wondered what next to whistle — while most people who whistle do it on instinct, Josh considered what he was whistling about before he proceeded. It was while he was pondering this, that he began to hear more sounds. The distant pattering of hundreds of feet, and high pitched screeches that would have hurt his ears were they close enough. He squinted down the road ahead of him to see an slowly expanding black cloud low to the ground. Soon, it appeared more like rushing brown water. Then, individual figures became apparent, and the screeching was clearly audible. Josh's eyes widened, almost all rational thought disappearing, and he turned and ran, screaming. After a few seconds, the furry crowd gaining on him all the time, enough intelligence presented itself that he took out his cellphone….

* * *

"So, what _did_ you want to talk about?" Kim asked, still not sitting down.

"That pretty much covered it, really…." Stupid was something that Shego was not. Kim was still uptight from dismissing Dr. Director so … _violently_, and the green girl could tell. She wasn't prepared to antagonise the redhead more, because while she was pretty sure she could take on Kim and not only survive but maybe come out on top under _normal_ circumstances, she had fought her once today already while she was edgy, and now the girl was angry, too. Plus, she'd just seen confirmation that mentally, Kim wasn't the same 'innocent' teenager she'd taken the hair of to clone just the other day — she now seemed to possess an amount of Shego's own violence, and she knew not to mess with that.

"Yeah…. Right." Neither was Kim. "You decided to come over here, just to warn me that some guy wasn't exactly who I might have thought he was, not long after trying to kill me with some clones you had DNAmy knock up for you? Finding this just a _little_ hard to believe…."

"Yeah, well… It's that, or you can go for something completely stupid, like I came to declare my undying love for you."

"You – I have to get this." The phone had started to ring again. "Possible Residence, Kim speaking." The bright tone – 'her telephone voice', Shego thought – was back.

The voice on the other end of the phone had let her say that much before screaming two syllables into the phone so loud that while Shego could hear them, the limits of the diaphragm that was turning the electrical signals into sound distorted them such that they were impossible to decipher.

"Come again? Quieter, this time?" Kim sighed patiently into the receiver, at the same time trying to stop the ringing in her ear with her other hand.

"Monkeys!" the voice on the other end of the line, Josh, yelled again, a little quieter.

Kim burst out laughing. "You've been spending too much time around Ron!" she exclaimed. "How many, and what's the sitch on them?"

"Way too many! They're chasing me down the street!"

"Can you see, is there one there that is larger than the others, is wearing a ninja outfit, has black hair, and looks almost human?" The redhead looked sidelong at the sword resting on the table.

"That would mean turning around to have a look – slowing down! I'm not that crazy!"

"It a fair bet he's in there, anyway. We have something here he wants."

"Oh, great! And to think, I was running back to your house!" The boy's word were riddled with sarcasm.

"You just get yourself back here," chuckled Kim, "we'll sort out the monkey problem." With that, she hung up; the last two words had been spoken to a closed line anyway.

"Well, I guess I better go inform the monkey master," she said to herself.

"_Monkey master_?!" laughed Shego. "What is _that_ supposed to be? Your boyfriend's a monkey or something?"

Kim scowled. "Hey, I get enough of that from Ron," she started, before realising that Shego, now sniggering, was in fact referring to Ron. "I mean, just shut up, OK?" She turned to leave the room.

"Whatever you say, your _high_ness," Shego scoffed. "So, what's with the sword?" Kim froze in her tracks.

"It's none of your business," she replied. 'It's hardly mine,' said her thoughts. The teenager turned back, and picked up the sword by the base of the hilt. Keeping it pointed down and across her body, she turned and walked to the base of the stairs. "Don't touch anything," she warned, before continuing up them.

"Whatever," Shego said quietly before walking around to the other side of the island bench, locating the cups, and pouring herself the cup of coffee that Ron had never fetched her. She brought the cup to her lips, staring as far up the stairs as she could see. Despite herself, she was coming to realise that she quite liked Kim in a twisted 'I want to kill you' kind of way. The redhead was the only person she'd ever fought for more than a brief few seconds before beating. Even her brother Hego, with his super strength that could, if it had the chance to be applied, throw her half way across Go City, had been unable to prevent himself from being pinned down by her impossible speed and matching reflexes. Almost everyone else she'd fought before or since then had been a hilarious joke, until along came Kimmie, who nearly had her beat at her own game the first time they'd had a proper exchange. Shego had been out of practice with real fighters, but while every time she fought Kim she became faster and stronger, so did her fiery eyed opponent. That was another thing, the girl's eyes — a soul burned inside that reminded Shego of someone – but she couldn't for the life of her remember who. With Drakken dead now, of course, Kim Possible wasn't so much an obstacle to world domination as someone else she was running from — and yet here she was, at her enemy's home, trying against all reason to find some answers that she was sure the girl wouldn't have.

"Ugh! This is stewed!" the woman exclaimed. Sipping from the cup she held had been a mistake.

Upstairs, Kim rapped on the bathroom door. "Ron?" she asked it. There was no response. She tried again, this time using the end of the sword's hilt. Still, there was no response but the sound of running water. She tried to turn the handle, to no avail — Ron had conscientiously locked the door. Every barrier has its weakness though, and Kim knew this one like the back of her hand (so to speak — she'd never looked particularly hard for a weak spot on her hand). She lined up against the point just below the handle….

"**GAH**!" Ron hurriedly covered himself as the door flew in, barely holding its hinges, powered by the force of a teen heroine's foot. The same teenager who was then inside the room. "KP! What if I was– I _am_! Naked here! Hello!"

Kim raised an eyebrow. "Upon me barging into the room, you yell 'GAH!', and I start laughing?" she suggested, breaking into laughter as she said it.

Ron blinked. "That's not fair," he said, "I give you every inch of privacy you ask for, and–"

"And there's a pack of monkeys headed our way, that may or may not be being led by a neurotic freak of scientific mutilation," Kim interjected in acrid tone, placing her free hand on her hip. "You _clearly_ weren't going to hear if I yelled at you through the door, so what did you expect me to do?"

"Well, that's just great!" exclaimed Ron, choosing to take the question as rhetorical. Forgetting his state of undress, he raised his arms in the air in a gesture of exasperation. "Monkeys!"

"Hrm." Kim pulled her lips into her left cheek and turned her head away; Ron's sudden movement had caused her to instinctively look where his hands _had_ been. "Deal with it," she said flatly, tossing the Lotus Blade to him.

Ron caught the sword, and covered himself again with his free hand. "Can I get dressed first?" he asked nervously; He wasn't sure what KP would make of what he'd just done – even if it was an accident.

"Please do," replied the redhead before turning her back on him and walking away. A smile crossed her face as she did so, but she suppressed it. She collected a pair of fighting staffs from her room before going back downstairs. They were titanium steel poles with internal carbon threading, and they reacted in a way that Kim would be lying about if she said she didn't favour. Except for some friendly sparring with her Nana, she hadn't yet had a chance to play with them. This was just the excuse she was itching for.

"Sneak a good look?" asked Shego, sniggering.

Kim considered a snide reply. Deciding she wasn't really in the mood to try and best Shego in a sarcasm play-off, she settled for "What do you care?" and throwing a staff at the smart-Alec.

"Don't make me _spill_ my _coffee_ or anything," sneered Shego, catching the projectile. Despite her comment, the floor remained coffee free, and she downed the rest of the freshly made cup before plonking it on the table. Then she looked at the staff. "Nice toy," she said, "but what are you giving it to me for?"

Kim shrugged. "Maybe I just like you right now. I mean, seeing as you came to declare you love me and all…."

"Very funny," replied Shego dryly.

"OK, if you're going to stick around, it'd be nice if you helped out and whacked some simians or something," the teen explained. 'You might want to keep out of tail's reach of them."

"I don't need this!" laughed Shego. "Glowing hands, can throw burning plasma, all that cool stuff, remember?"

Instead of arguing verbally, Kim jumped the green lass with her staff. She swung and jabbed in Saxon style several times, making sure to keep the pace slow. Shego blocked every move, and then attempted an attack herself. Kim not only blocked it, but used the spring in her own staff with the force of Shego's swing to backflip a couple of feet away. She stayed the staff vertically next to herself. Shego stumbled, but caught herself.

"You've gotta admit, they're pretty cool sticks," Kim said, half smiling.

"_Very_ nice toys," admitted the other woman, grinning. "I gotta get me one of these!" She spun the staff a couple of times, and then attacked Kim, using the same style that the redhead had employed before.

The pace was a lot quicker than most people would be comfortable sparring with, but the other girl kept up. Shego stepped up the pace. Kim responded by cranking it up a little more. This process repeated a few times, and now they were fighting so fast and hard that most people fighting for their lives couldn't keep up. The two of them grinned at each other.

"Hey!"

Shego stopped and looked up at Ron. Kim took the opportunity to push Shego to the ground, but stopped there and looked up also. The boy was standing halfway up the stairs, glaring down at them, dressed in mission garb and sporting the Lotus Blade in an improvised cloth sheath that hung from his utility belt in place of the usual rope for the grappling hook. He also carried a staff, but it was made of the more traditional yew, and he handled it differently, as though it were a streamlined and extended truncheon.

"Are we going to fight them inside or something?" he asked. "'Cause let me tell you, that ain't a pretty scenario…."

Shego planted her foot in the middle of Kim's staff and pushed her away violently. The redhead received enough momentum from this movement that she could handspring off the rail on to the stairs behind Ron.

"Let's get out there," said Shego, standing up.

"Hey, my house," Kim complained. Shego cocked her head. "Well, let's go," sighed the cheerleader.

As they stepped outside, Josh and the monkeys crested the hill. The monkeys were hardly behind him now, and the poor boy was visibly panicking. Ron sniggered.

"What are you laughing at?" asked Kim.

"Silly thing. I'm thinking, Mankey monkey monkey monkey monkey…." This actually made Kim giggle, but Shego shook her head.

Kim was stilling giggling a little as Josh ran up the drive. He stopped and looked at her with his trademark expression of confusion, one eyebrow cocked and his eyes wide, before dashing through the door that Ron was holding open for him. Ron kicked it shut behind the other boy as the two girls stemmed the tide of simians. Then Ron, striding towards them, staff tucked into his arm, drew the Lotus Blade and glowered over the monkeys.

"Stop," he commanded. The monkeys did so — a couple of them went airbourne from the ends of both Shego's and Kim's staffs, they'd stopped so suddenly. Ron blinked at this — he hadn't expected it to be that easy. "Kneel?" he suggested. The simians complied. Ron grinned — a sinister idea was forming in his mind. "Now, follow closely," he said, "Stand up. Now," – he started singing – "Shake shake shake, shake shake shake, shake your bootae, shake your bootae! Have a little fun, do a little dance…" 

Shego and Kim shared a Look. Where in the many hells did this boy get his ideas from?

Thus it was that Monkey Fist, arriving over the hill behind his minions, found them disco dancing. "Stoppable," he spat, as though it were the most vile and evil cussword. "Curse you." He narrowed his eyes and continued, on all fours as was his fashion, through the crowd of dancing monkeys.

* * *

> Dancing Monkeys. Mmm-hmm, mmm, hmm. Am I not the most neurotic person you've ever read? OK, true, If I wasn't neurotic, I wouldn't be here. I think Ace is probably less sane, because I don't see Ron being stupid enough to stick his head in a toilet. Onwards.
> 
> I still haven't decided on Montgomery's fate, but anyone screaming at me "Don't kill him, don't kill him!" or "Kill! Kill! Kill!" will be prompty ignored. Deal with it.
> 
> I hope I managed to drag Kim a little back into character here. And push her a little further out. At the moment, Ron is not really in the focus, but before judging how far in or out of character he is, just remember that this is set _after_ the whole of season 2. After he's drooled in Kim's mouth and everything (Or was it Kim who would have drooled in his mouth? I must see 'Rewriting History' again to determine…. Plot spoiler? I don't think so.)
> 
> And now for the part you've all been putting up for droning on about how either real-world biological constraints are not properly applied in the Kimmiverse or Ron's in a Whole Lot of Trouble when Kim works it out:  
**In the next chapter**, Two special guest appearances! Lots of monkeys! Being hit with big sticks, don't the buggers deserve it? Face off between the mystical monkey power titans! One of our heroes is the recipient of some imprecise emergency surgery! Ron turns a funny shade of yellow! Shego admits her true feelings for Pandaroo! Stay tuned.


	16. We always hurt the ones we love

The monkeys were still shaking their booty when Monkeyfist finally reached the centre of the group. He considered briefly killing his own minions, but decided it was probably being too nice. Instead, he swatted the nearest one.

"Monkey ninjas!" he screamed, "Stop!"

Back at the front door of the Possible's house, Shego and Kim, who had been lounging on the doorstep, stood up, and looked over to where the man was standing.

"Monkey ninjas, attack!" he commanded, to little effect.

"Look, honey, it's Mr. freak," laughed Shego. "Let's get 'im."

Kim looked sidelong at Shego. As long as the (possibly ex-) villainess was keeping it up, she thought, so was she. "Let the 'master' handle him, lover girl," she replied with a sardonic overtone, "we should do something about the monkeys. They've stopped dancing."

"Whatever grabs you, sweetheart," Shego said coolly. "As long as I get to hit _something_…." The woman held her staff out in front in her left hand, and ignited her right.

"Going combo?" asked her red-headed compadré, herself doing something similar, but used her right hand to angle the staff slightly rather than igniting a glow around it – something that, while she missed having slightly, she was unable to do.

"Why not?" asked Shego. Then she looked to the sky as though she was contemplating something. "What are these made of?"

"Titanium-steel with a carbon threaded core. Why?"

Shego touched her ignited hand with either end of the staff. Where she touched the staff, a ball of the green glow began to burn. "Catch," she said, tossing it into the air.

Kim speared her own staff into the air in front of Shego, who caught it with ignited hand. The staff began to glow along its entire length. "This better not damage them," the redhead growled.

"Don't worry, Princess, it won't," replied the glowing woman. "It's an in what's inside and outside the glow, see?"

"If you're lying, I'll kill you," said Kim, catching the spinning staff that Shego had thrown. The two girls took almost identical poses, crouching back on one leg, the other out in front, poised to leap. They both held their staffs angled by their good hand towards the monkeys, that still hadn't moved. They were caught between obeying their master and the wielder of the Lotus Blade. Girl and simian faced each other off, but neither moved. The monkeys were trying to make a difficult decision, and the women were waiting for Ron to actually do something. Monkeyfist was fuming at his minions.

"Screw this," the two green-eyed warriors said in unison, and both made an infinity figure in the air with their staffs as they leapt. Because of the green glow, the figures were visible in the air. When they made it to the ground again was where their movement began to differ. Whereas Kim was using the staff directly as a weapon, Shego used it as a media for her weapon of choice – her glow power. She shifted her hands to one end of the staff and made expanding walls of green that sent rows of monkeys flying, while Kim, spinning and thrusting, and sticking for now to the centre of the staff, took on the monkeys on a one on one basis – but made just as much progress when she started to hit them into each other. The girls met up in the middle of the monkey-front with Ron, also, whom they started to dance around, almost symmetrical movements throwing far away any of the monkeys that now finally obeyed Fiske and came too close as they started to move towards the self-mutilated neurotic. Kim, now lacking any glow on her staff, had started to shift her hands up and down the staff, alternating between various martial arts styles and the less specific techniques of Saxon fighting, and Shego started to do the same. Occasionally one or the both of them would complement their action with a kick.

'Weird,' Ron thought, observing their now seamlessly symmetric movement, 'it's like they're telling each other what they're going to do next on some kind of mental link.'

His ponderance had to end there, though, because the band of three had made it as far as Monkeyfist. "What an odd arrangement, Kim Possible is fighting, _with_ Shego _for_ you?" said the monkey-handed man. "I'm glad you decided to bring me my sword yourself."

"If it's really your sword, monkey boy," replied Ron, "Then you can take it from me." He tapped on the now sheathed blade. As he was saying this, Kim and Shego had expanded the circle that enclosed Ron and now Monkeyfist to about three times the area. The simian minions weren't actually coming very close to them now, and a fair number that had gone down had run away.

Monkeyfist reached out to grab the sword, but was dismayed to find his hand smacked away with a yew staff.

"I guess it's not yours then, is it?" Ron smacked the older man across the face with the staff as he looked up at the boy in shock. He wasn't expecting Ron to be able to take him on by himself. Monkeyfist crouched back and poised to strike.

Ron didn't wait around for the villain to do so. He smacked him across the abdomen with his staff and then down again on the back of his head. Monkeyfist hadn't been allowed the time to react. He did this time though, striking up and splitting the staff in two. He grabbed the free splinter with one of his ground-hands, and struck up again with that. Ron blocked it easily, but it gave Monkeyfist the opportunity to stand up again, and the two now began to fight an almost evenly-matched battle.

From not far away, but where the fighters could not see, Da Hand watched. He was evaluating – and he was pleased by what he could see. Kim and Shego could work together, and they did so very well. He didn't focus much on the blond-haired fighter, who suddenly evolved an aura of bright light, at all – and didn't care much to. The boy was in his view useless for what he was planning, despite the fact that he and his opponent were now glowing yellow, and striking at each other harder and faster than the two girls.

There was something else that Da Hand wasn't focused on, that perhaps he should have been. "Jim," said a familiar voice from right behind him. Len didn't respond, although he had heard. "Don't try to play that game with me, Jimmy, I know you better than that." Dr. Director placed a hand on his shoulder.

"Beth." The man turned around and faced her. Forgetting the scene now behind him, he started to walk backwards away from her. He didn't notice at all as Ron and Monkeyfist rose into the air in their fight, causing a fair portion of the monkeys to flee.

"Are you scared of me or something?" the GJ head asked, advancing on him. "That would be something considerably new and strange." Dr. Director was not paying attention to the battle either.

"I– You– You can't know," Len stammered. "I didn't plan for you to know…."

"You can come back, Jim," Dr. Director said, apparently not listening to what he said. "I'm the director now. Its all changed. I can pull some strings, make you the operative you should have become." She grabbed Len by the arms, and looked him in the eye. "I want you to come back," she whispered, pulling him towards her.

Len was torn. He didn't like any way that this could go, but he had to make a decision fast. Tears welling, he made the choice that was going to hurt him the most, and accepted the woman's embrace.

Kim caught a glimpse of them between monkeys and stared as the embrace turned to a kiss. She was still staring, now in horror, as she saw Dr. Director fall to the ground, a knife in her neck. Da Hand looked directly at the redhead, his eyes clearly filled with tears, and then disappeared, leaving his signature blue outline. She didn't notice the group of simians jump towards her until it was too late, and hit the ground hard.

Shego, still fighting effectively, saw Kim hit the ground under the pile of monkeys. She started to move towards the heap, when she saw a green glow start to shine through the gaps in them. "Kim! No!" she yelled, even though she knew it was too late for the girl.

A concussion that Kim received from one of the monkeys head-butting her had pushed her instincts into overdrive, and this part of her remembered Shego's glow power that she had used before in her right hand. It burst into life, and she threw the monkeys off herself. Only then did she realise what she'd just managed, as Shego ran straight towards her, and almost tackled her back to the ground again, grabbing Kim's hand that was uncontrollably burning green.

"Shit." Just that one word from Shego, and Kim knew immediately that she'd seen this before, and knew what was going to happen.

"What?" asked the redhead, looking her old-time foe in the eye. She was surprised to see that the emotion the the green girl carried was not just genuine worry, but concerned fear.

"This is not good," said Shego, cupping Kim's hand in her own. She summoned the glow, trying to use its healing properties again on the girl she had just come to realise she didn't hate all that much.

"What's happening?" demanded Kim. Shego's efforts were doing nothing to stop the burning feeling that engulfed her right hand.

"Something very not good," replied Shego, letting go of Kim's hand as the entirety of the remaining simians approached them. She put her arms around Kim, and pushed her left hand, fisted, into her right. She closed her eyes tight, and a shockwave of green glow erupted from where the two were standing. What monkeys were neither killed immediately nor thrown far by it fled, screeching.

"_Stoppable_!" yelled Shego, glowing green along her whole body and still embracing Kim. Far above, the boy did not hear. She turned the redhead around, and let go with one arm, that she then aimed very carefully at Monkeyfist. She groaned as a steady beam of the green glow shot from her hand.

Ron could only watch as Monkeyfist was shunted far away from him, now glowing green instead of yellow. Then he looked down. Gasping briefly, he floated to the ground, unaware of how he did so, or how he'd come to be in the air in the first place.

Shego held out Kim's still burning right hand from her. "Cut if off," she panted.

"Can't stand there being someone else that can do that?" Ron accused.

"I can handle the power. My whole body was changed to handle it," replied Shego in a level voice. "She can't. It will consume her. Do it!"

"Why should I trust you?"

"Cut. The damned hand. Off," grunted Kim, glaring at Ron. She shook Shego's grip on her arm, and held it out straight.

"Oh." Ron unsheathed the Lotus Blade, and lined up its leading edge as close to the flame as he could. He now noticed that Kim's fingertips were, indeed, burning away. Lifting the sword, he closed his eyes, and swung through. The burning hand fell to the ground, and then erupted in a larger flame that consumed the hand within seconds.

"Any later and that would have happened to Kim's whole body," growled Shego, grabbing the redhead's arms back as she moved the glow to her hands only, and rammed the bleeding end of Kim's right arm into her palm. The teen yelped slightly as it at first burned her, but relaxed as a layer of flesh formed around the severed bone. "There you go, Princess," Shego said quietly, before collapsing.

Kim, panting heavily, looked around. Apart from Ron and herself, Shego's unconscious form, and Dr. Director's body lying in a pool of blood, the street was empty. "I think – she just saved my life," she stated, looking back down at the sleeping woman. "That is … weird. She tried to kill me less than a day ago." The teens looked over then to where Dr. Director was. 

Ron walked over to her and knelt down. He held his hand in front of her mouth, and was relieved to find present, if shallow, breath. He checked for a pulse, just in case. "Kim!" he yelled. "She's still alive!"

Kim walked over to the boy. "The Kimmunicator's in my right pocket," she said.

Realising that his best friend was indicating that she would not be able to get the device herself, Ron obliged and emancipated it from the utility belt she was wearing, flicked the call button, and handed it to her.

"What's up, Kim?" asked Wade, groggily. She'd woken him up from the slumber he'd fallen into before.

"I need an ambulance here, high speed. Dr. Director's been hurt."

"Shego?" asked Wade, already connecting to the emergency services. He was completely unaware of the events that had transpired in the Possible home.

"No. Da Hand," replied Kim. 'At least that means he didn't have the house bugged,' she thought.

"It's on its way," Wade said. "Can I go back to sleep now?"

Kim shrugged. "Your choice," she said, and handed the Kimmunicator back to Ron. "I'll take Shego inside, you bring Dr. Director. She'll need to be handled very carefully."

"You got it," replied Ron, and kneeled back down to pick up the woman.

"Uh, Ron, I'm not going to be able to pick her up myself…."

"How are you going to take her inside then?" asked Ron, confused.

Kim sighed. "If you pick her up and give her to me, I can carry her from there. Just be sure to place her knees over my right arm."

"Right," said Ron. The two walked back over to Shego, and Ron did as Kim had said, draping Shego's legs over Kim's crippled arm, and handing her shoulders to Kim's remaining hand. Then he went back to pick up Dr. Director.

"Leave the knife in her neck!" Kim shouted to him.

"Got it!" he yelled back. He knew that anyway – it wasn't like he was incompetent at first aid. 'Probably she just needed to be sure, though,' he told himself, carefully supporting Dr. Directors neck as he picked her up. 'Certainly wouldn't want her to bleed to death,' he thought, as they carried their loads to Kim's house.

* * *

> I finally got a copy of the album "The Fat of the Land" by the Prodigy yesterday, which might explain if this chapter is a little more violent than it should be. I'm not going to apologise. Arnie would say I was a "girly man."
> 
> Head, hand, what's the difference? OK, so it would be a little bit of a premature end for Kim if I'd made the mistake again — but I think there was a certain amount of me hearing too much about weirdos getting their heads stuck in the toilet when I was reading Ace's review.
> 
> Alright, so no Pandaroo. Shego did admit to herself, and effectively to Kim and Ron, that she didn't feel _so_ bad about Kim though.
> 
> **In the next chapter**: Composite chapter. Finally we move along to another day! What's Kim going to do about having only one hand? Some other stuff, too. Stay tuned.


	17. Justice Agency?

Kim, deciding that Shego was probably less fragile than Dr. Director right now, shifted her left hand to open the front door. She didn't need to, as Josh opened it before she had actually let go of the green girl's shoulder. Kim blinked at him – she'd forgotten he was back here during the battle.

"Uh, thanks, Josh," she said.

"Hey, no problem," the boy replied as Kim carried Shego through the door, Ron following with Dr. Director close after. Closing the door behind them, Josh asked the obvious question. "What happened to your hand?"

"I'm not quite sure," replied the redhead, "we'll have to ask Shego about that. She seemed to have a fair idea what was happening – it has to do with her glow power."

"She did that?"

Kim looked at him with closed eyes. "If you mean 'did she save me from burning myself alive', or 'did she heal where Ron had to cut my hand off', then yes. Other than that, I think I did it to myself." Kim sighed and looked at the woman as she laid her down on a chair. "When she was holding me, it was like she was scared for my life – as though losing me would be some kind of great loss for her. I swear she knew exactly what was going to happen if nothing was done about it fast."

"Didn't she try to kill us earlier?" asked the boy, confused.

"I think something's changed since then," Kim said in a quiet and reflective voice. She then took on a more commanding tone. "Help Ron with Dr. Director."

Josh looked over to where Ron was trying to lay the director of GJ down on a couch. "What happened to her?" he asked, starting to walk over.

"Da Hand. I think he was watching us, and she caught him by surprise," the teen heroine replied. 'And now we know what she wasn't telling us about her partnership with him in GJ,' a voice in her head continued. She wasn't sure if it was her own.

As Ron started to give Josh instructions as to what he needed him to do to let the woman down without injuring her further, Kim wandered outside to get the staffs that had been left in the road. Apart from the fact that she didn't want to lose them already, they were a danger to any vehicles, including the ambulance when it got there. She was actually surprised to see them there, still lying on the road. Managing to pick them up with her left hand – formerly she'd been right handed, but that was obviously going to have to change – the redhead wondered how long the ambulance would be as she walked back to the house. Making it to the front door, she turned as she heard a car roll up onto the curb.

'Great, police. Just what I need. But, what was I expecting?' At one and the same, she was hoping and fearing it would be Hobble. On the one hand, she might be able to talk her way out of being taken back to the station, but on the other, he'd be expecting an explanation of what was going on. The teen didn't have that explanation – she didn't know herself yet. She sighed and waved whoever had come over with her crippled arm.

First the driver opened his door and stepped out. Then, he aimed a rifle at Kim's head, resting the butt of the gun on the roof of the squad car, as his partner, sidearm drawn, exited the vehicle and walked towards her. The redhead dropped the staffs and held her arms up. Neither policeman even let their weapon down. They'd seen someone they thought was the girl in front of them break the necks of four people they'd worked with every day for several years. The fact they'd seen two of her didn't register.

"I, uh, presume you've come to see what's with the call for the ambulance?" Kim asked nervously.

"What are you going to _do_ with the ambulance?"

"Well, the idea was to save Dr. Director's life…."

"Who?" The constable, like most people, hadn't heard of Global Justice.

"This person," replied Kim angrily, "who just so happens to be bleeding from a knife wound in her neck, and needs to get to a hospital fast."

The policeman, now standing not far from her, cocked his weapon. "Yeah, right." He then grabbed Kim, and held his pistol to the soft spot under her jaw. "You're going to die for what you did, bitch," he spat.

Kim relaxed her arms, and wiped the spittle from her face. She looked up at the copper, and narrowed her eyes. "If I were you, I wouldn't have done that," she said. "I don't think you have much time left to regret it."

The girl winced and looked away as the rifle round sailed right through her assailant's head, spattering the side of her face with blood, and lodged itself in the door frame behind her. She looked back at his body after he slumped to the ground. The man could be instantly recognised by his face – he didn't have one any more. Kim looked up to the squad car. The other policeman had fallen away from the vehicle, and she could see his body through the space under it. There was no doubt in her mind that he'd had either a throwing knife or a crossbow bolt inserted somewhere it mattered.

"Call it intuition," she sighed. Shouting now, she addressed the unseen Da Hand. "Look, I don't know what your game is, but you're a fucking bastard, y'hear? They're going to think I did that!" She picked up the staffs, and turned to go back into the house. Ron was standing in the doorway.

One look at his best friend's face told him the whole story. "Oh my god," said the boy, embracing Kim.

"Need someone to clean this up?" The voice behind the redhead startled both her and Ron, who had closed his eyes while they hugged, and therefore didn't see even the GJ hoverjet landing on the front lawn.

"Yeah, that'd be great," he replied to the agent before Kim could open her mouth, and then saw the stretcher bearers running towards them. "Dr. D is inside," he said, pulling his best friend into the house. The GJ agent followed them.

Kim dumped the staffs in the corner of the room and watched as Dr. Director was carefully shifted from the now stained couch onto the stretcher, and run back out to the aircraft. "What about Shego?" she asked.

The GJ agent looked over to the unconscious woman. "Well, she doesn't look obviously hurt," he replied, "and we don't have any extra room on the craft. You'll have to look after her until we can get back. I trust you can handle it?"

"Yeah, I think we can." Kim didn't know whether the agent hadn't noticed her missing hand, or he didn't know who Shego was, or if perhaps he had better knowledge of recent events than Wade would have been able to give. She didn't care particularly either. "I'm gonna go get cleaned up. Again." The redhead turned away from the scene and climbed the stairs.

"Hey, at least you didn't ruin another outfit," the face in the mirror told her as she filled the vanity sink. She cut the tap, and dipped a flannel in the water. 'First time I've had to use a face cloth in ages,' she thought. 'I _so_ don't want to have to get used to this.' She wiped her face with the soapy water, and squeezed the flannel. The water in the basin turned pink. She frowned at her reflection in it, watching it ripple. "This wouldn't be happening if you'd just refused to leave the cell." She wiped her face again, and this time looked at herself in the mirror. 'What would those psycho clones have done by now if you'd done that?' the voice in her head asked. She sighed. 'If only I hadn't ditched cheerleading all those years ago to go and rescue some guy with his Cuddle-Buddie collection. The Flamingoat isn't worth this.' She blinked at her reflection. Taking a deep breath, the teenager plunged her face into the basin, and screamed into the water.

"KP?" Ron stared at the redhead hanging breathlessly in the water. He stepped just inside the doorway, and leaned against the door. "KP, they cleared up the cops' bodies. The guy we were talking to is taking them for a 'drive.'"

Kim raised her head from the vanity unit, and looked Ron in the eye, twitching slightly. "Whatever," she said dismissively. She took on a whimpery tone as she asked, "Why does this have to be happening?"

"You're asking the wrong guy there, KP," the blond-haired boy replied, grinning. "Ron Stoppable knows no reason!" His grin faded when he saw no change in Kim's pained expression.

"Why didn't you ask if she was okay first?" Josh asked quietly from the hall. Ron didn't say anything, but shook his head.

Kim drained the sink and towelled her face off. Tucking the wet locks of her hair behind her ears, she leaned against the door frame, and looked into the boy's blue eyes. "We know each other better than that, Josh, we've been friends as far back as either of us can remember. If I'm okay, he knows it. If I'm not okay, he knows better than to ask."

"Well, here's a bon-diggety idea," chirped Ron, and his expression fading to one more serious continued, "let's get you two some sleep. I'll keep watch first."

"Wha'?" Josh asked, confused.

Kim sighed. "We need to sleep at some point. Ron's probably the least tired of any of us, because he's used to being out late on missions but hasn't been doing the school's security service's job for the last week. There's a – a psychopath out there who may or may not be dangerous, and I'm not sure I want to risk you being used or maybe killed by him." The redhead turned to Ron. "You want to call for delivered Bueno Nacho first?"

A certain naked mole appeared, running fast, up the corridor, and scurried up Ron's leg. "Uh-huh, uh-huh, Naco!" Rufus exclaimed, and started nodding ferociously.

"Would I ever turn that down?" the blonde boy replied. He then turned and looked at Josh, as if to say he'd better agree.

"Coolios," the blue-eyed boy said, shrugging.

* * *

> I hadn't intended to write this chapter quite, I was supposed to tailing off the day at the top and adding a separator, but the cops turned up and it ran away on me. I _promise_ the next chapter will do as this one was supposed to.
> 
> Of course ponderance is a word!
> 
> The next chapter will have what this one was supposed to. ;)
> 
> …I have to wonder, just how many people actually think they _do_ know where this is headed?


	18. Sarah

White. White all around her. Above her, below her, nothing but white. Except, there had to be a surface as well, she was standing on it. Either it was white, or it was invisible. It _looked_ like she was floating – there were no shadows, no signs of pressure – though she definitely felt like she was standing on something.

She looked down at her naked body. She was almost embarrassed by that fact, but couldn't figure out why – after all, there was no-one here to see. She wasn't sure if _she_ was there to see. Something was different about it, too, she was sure. Something wasn't right about it in this place, and yet the same thing was more right than it had been. She played with a lock of red hair in her right hand. That was right, that's what was different. It was better, but still wrong. This place was getting to her. She wanted out, now.

The girl closed her eyes and concentrated for a few moments. She stretched her arms out to the side, and then opened again her now burning eyes, a determined expression forming, you might call it evil if you didn't know better. She brought her hands together and stretched them out in front of herself, and screamed. A stream of green energy flowed from her hands off into the distance, punctuating the endless white.

'That has something to do with who I am,' she considered, before looking down at the green colour that was now spreading up her arms. 'That's not a normal colour for skin.'

"Who are you?" The girl spun around at the sound of the voice, a familiar voice. There was another girl there now. She had also red hair, though it was shorter and straighter, and green eyes. Her body was a little different, more … pointy, though she was almost exactly the same height.

"I don't know. I think I remember my dad calling me 'Princess.' Am I you?" asked the first girl as the newcomer walked towards her.

The second girl didn't say anything until their faces were only a few inches apart, each pair of green eyes studying the other. "I don't think so." She laughed. "For starters, mine calls me 'Kimmie Cub,' or by my full name when I'm in trouble." Now she raised an eyebrow, and her voice changed to a questioning tone. "Shego?"

"That sounds familiar, too. I think it came later."

"So, you used to have red hair, and a more normal coloured skin? Or do you just dream of yourself that way? I hear it's not easy being green." To a degree, the comment sounded like an insult. At the least, Kim was not being entirely sincere.

"My hair's going to turn green, too?" asked Shego, shocked not by Kim's tone, but by the prospect of having green hair. She liked red.

"You really don't remember who you are, do you?" asked Kim, turning and stepping away from the confused girl. She stopped about a foot away from her. "Black. Your hair is going to turn black – you already have roots." She spun around quickly, kicking Shego in the stomach.

The now almost entirely green girl flew backwards and fell to the ground, reeling. "What was that for?" she asked, doubled over. She'd tried to yell it, but she hadn't even been close to expecting the kick, and was winded beyond that.

"I though maybe if I reminded you what our official relationship was? I'm a teen hero, you were a villain's sidekick. I don't know where you're up to now, but you were pretty clear on the point that you hated me before. You even tried to kill me, but just before you fell unconscious, you saved my life, or that's what it looked like. I think now I know one reason why, why you hated me and the same reason you 'saved my life,' 'Princess.' Do I remind you of someone you used to see in the mirror, much? Maybe that's why you turned evil as well?"

"Hey, you don't get to call me that, Kimmie," and now the old grin was back on Shego's face as she stood. "And no, that's not why I turned evil. But thanks for reminding me why I hated you and why I saved you. I was telling the truth, you were gonna burn up, unless one or the other of us was dead before you did. Apparently, that's how it works. And now," she flared her hands, and charged at Kim.

The red haired teen didn't move, didn't even flinch, even as Shego tackled her to the ground and prepared to strike her face. "Do you really think I'd believe you're going to do that? You're not even convincing yourself. I don't think you have it in you any more."

Shego rolled her eyes and stood up. She didn't feel like responding, the lack of any kind of actual environment was making her dizzy. "So, how do I get out of here?" she asked.

Kim shuffled back from under Shego and stood up too. She walked up to her, and grabbed behind the green girl's neck. "Like this," she said, and twisted it — she still had two hands in the dream world, and broke her neck easily. Shego fell to the supposed ground, and then kept falling until she was out of sight.

"Well, that was interesting," stated Kim, watching her fall. She looked up. "Wade's going to have a field day with this. I hope we're not stuck in each other's heads forever."

* * *

Kim snuggled up to the boy she was sharing her bed with before she opened her eyes. Then she blinked slowly. "Ron?" There was no response from him or the other occupant of the room, who was sitting by the window, silhouetted by the morning sunlight. As Kim pushed herself up to get to get a better look at the figure in the window, her alarm clock went off, prompting Josh to fall off the chair he was sitting on.

Ron, screaming briefly, rolled over and put his hands over his eyes. Josh stirred and then was suddenly standing, looking around wildly.

"What?!" he and Kim asked, alarmed.

Ron took his hand away, and looked sidelong at Kim, eyes wide. "Not that I'm saying you don't have pretty– I mean, that you're not– You could poke an eye out with one of those!" he exclaimed.

Only then did Kim think about where pushing herself up had put various parts of her anatomy. She went red – her nightgown wasn't particularly designed to conceal from close quarters.

"OK, I'm not suggesting I'd actually do this, especially since yesterday, but just so you know, I'm thinking _really_ hard about you being covered in bruises right now," Josh said to Ron.

"Hey, how was that my fault?" the blonde exclaimed. "See, this is why I _always_ go to temple."

"What, so you don't wake up the next morning in bed with a beautiful girl?" replied Josh snidely. "_Sure_. You were just hoping that this _would_ happen. You've been wanting to get your hands on my girl since– for a long time."

"Hey, I'm quite happy with Zita," Ron retorted, "Maybe you're just jealous that I get to hang out with Kim _and_ I have a girlfriend?"

"Oh, give it a break!" Kim, despite the mild anger and more prominent tease in her voice, was still blushing. "If I didn't know better I'd swear you two were married! I'm going to go check on Shego. I expect nothing to be broken when I get back." She rolled up to sitting on the side of the bed, but stopped when a note on her bedside table caught her eye. She leaned over and picked it up.

> _Good morning Princess,  
Next time sleep with lover boy and put your boyfriend  
on watch, he might pay more attention to what's going  
on around him rather than dozing.  
Gone to attend to some business, I won't be here when  
you get up.  
Thanks for not leaving me there,  
Sarah_

"Who's Sarah?" asked Ron.

"Who do you think?" replied Kim sarcastically. "Josh, you're the etymologist, what does the name mean?"

"'Sarah?' It's Old English. It means 'Princess'"

"'Princess.' Her dad used to call her that."

"Who?!" Ron repeated.

Kim shot the boy a look that clearly was asking him if he was stupid. "Did you think her real name was Shego?"

"So, not leaving her where?" asked Josh.

Kim had to think before answering that question. "On the road, I guess," she decided to lie.

"Surely she knows we wouldn't leave her in the middle of the street?"

"I don't know," replied Kim as she tried to push herself up from the bed. Her right arm wasn't cooperating. "She's got to be tired, too. And, considering the crowd she's been hanging out with for the past, like," – she gritted her teeth as she tried harder to push off the bed – "forever, what would she expect? Nrgh!" The last grunt marked her resignation to sitting on the bed for the moment. "I never would have thought I needed my hand for such _simple_ things," she sighed, lying back. "Kimmunicator," she said, holding out her hand. Ron leapt over her and grabbed it from the table and placed it in her outstretched palm. She glared at him before picking it up and tapping the call button.

"Isn't a bit early for you on a Sunday?" Wade eyed her suspiciously

"Parents aren't here to bug me about going to church," she explained.

"You know, you should go once in a while. Or at least once maybe," the boy replied. "I'll wager you didn't call just to say good morning?"

"Tell me you've got something, anything, that can deal with _this_," Kim replied, holding up the stump at the end or her right arm.

"Ugh. What _is_ that?"

"What it isn't," growled Kim, omitting to remember that her junior friend didn't know, "is my right hand."

"Could've told you that," said Wade with a furrowed brow. Then it dawned on him. "Your hand is missing?"

"Doi!" exclaimed the redhead angrily. "Ron had to cut it off so I didn't burn myself to death."

"Well I'm sorry, your impatience" replied Wade obtusely, "I didn't get that memo."

"I'm sorry, Wade," Kim said softly, "I'm frustrated. You wouldn't _believe_ how annoying this is — I can't even get out of bed! Have you got anything?"

"Well," replied the gadget man, "it's very experimental, but as it happens I have _something_ you might like."

Kim sat up excitedly and grinned. Someone with less toned abdominals wouldn't have been have to do it. "You know me, Wade. Experimental Schmexsch– you know what I mean. What've you got?"

"Well, I can't guarantee that our connection isn't being tapped," the genius explained while cursing the FBI for not allowing him to use 1024 bit encryption on the wireless signal, "so I can't tell you over the Kimmunicator…. I'll be at your house in about 5, okay?"

"Spankin'!" Kim exclaimed before tapping the call button again to close the connection.

"Whoa, Wade's coming here?" asked Ron. "In person? Let us get out the special plates and party decorations!"

"Don't hold your breath," Kim replied, "This _is_ Wade we're talking about here. He'll probably send a robot with a more secure comms link or something."

"What're you talking about?" Josh, not being use to the ten year old genius, was confused.

"OK, that little guy, he's like my website manager," explained Kim dismissively, "and he builds gadgets and stuff for me. We've never met him in person."

"You met this guy over the internet, and he knows where you live? Are you _crazy_?!"

"C'mon," cried Ron, "He hasn't tried to kill us yet in the 4 years we've known him, or even the 5 years that the _Kim Possible_ operation has been running. That has to qualify him as a good guy."

"He's Monique's cousin," Kim said quietly. Then loudly, "Is anyone gonna help me up?"

* * *

> Okay, I'm cutting it off there because it's almost 4am and I'm Tired (TM). There might be a few proofing errors – don't tell me about them, I'll fix them later.
> 
> Why Sarah? If you read through again, I do explain it to an extent.  
In case you didn't get it, the chapter opens with Shego inside a … sort of shared space between her and Kim's minds.
> 
> **Next chapter**: _Business_, Kim's first meeting with Wade _in person_ (Well, maybe. You know how it normally goes). 'Till then, keep reviewing, my friends!


	19. Technology

The moon shone an eery light on the industrial road. Warehouse after warehouse lined the wide street, but only one showed any signs of life. A dull orange glow as from a gas lamp illuminated the street as a dark figure opened the forbidding door.

"Yo, 'Jimmy!'" Most people, upon entering such a building, would be scared to be heard. Not Shego — she'd kill anyone who even suggested she was scared, and she supposed that she'd find here exactly what she'd been told. That and she could handle any crazed psychopath who might have thrown the knife she'd just caught.

"Oh, it's you. Calling me Jimmy, I–"

"Thought I was Betty? Didn't you _kill_ her not long ago?" Shego turned to face the man, watching him as he walked towards her.

"Yeah, yeah, I did. It's just–"

"You wish you hadn't?" She took note of the surprised look on Len's face. "Yeah, we saw that, too. Anything else you feel like sharing?"

"Are you ready to die?"

Shego flared her hands. "Come again?"

"I guess I'm not sharing, then." He leaned back a little, and then _blurred_.

About 5 feet away from where she had been standing, Shego used the momentum from her slide to push herself up onto one knee before stopping with her other foot. "So, that's how you want to play?" she growled, unfolding to a less floor-bound pose.

"Play?" Len chuckled. "I tired of _playing_ a long time ago." He narrowed his eyes and dropped the cheerful tone as Shego ignited her hands again. "Just try to consider what you're actually dealing with here," the man continued, sighing as Shego threw a green burning ball at him. "You know, I could always find someone else to do this — it just seems a waste to have to actually kill you."

"Huh?" Shego watched her bundle of charged ions continue through the space Len had occupied a moment before.

"Thought you'd have learned that one by now," Len stated thoughtfully from behind her.

"No, I mean 'What in Hell are you talking about?'"

"Ah." Len placed a hand on the green girl's shoulder. "Allow me to explain…."

* * *

A storm gripped the Possibles' lounge room. Josh sulked in the corner, and Ron didn't try to make it any better from his seat on the remaining couch. Kim didn't really blame Ron — he _had_ tried, but Josh had effectively said 'Fuck you, Ron' in more complicated language. The redhead figured that if she hadn't been in the room at the time, he would have said those exact words.

"Josh, we did not _sleep_ together," she said, for the third time that morning, "and besides, you told him you'd take my shift. Perhaps if you'd slept a little longer _where you were supposed to_, I could have arranged things so that Ron _didn't_ wake up that close to my… chest."

"What, you're blaming me for this now?" the bleached juvenile almost screamed. He was still angry, despite the best efforts of the other two occupants of the room.

"You're the only one who seems to think there's a problem!" Kim _did_ scream, raising her hands to the heavens and turning away from the boy again.

At that point, the door bell rang. "Thank you, Wade," Ron quietly exclaimed, standing up to answer the door.

The blond was surprised to say the least when outside the front door, nothing said "Hey, Ron."

"Wade? Where are you?" Ron looked around worriedly.

"I'm in the hall. You can close the front door now."

"I see you, 'invisiboy,'" Kim said accusingly from the lounge room.

"Where?" asked Ron and Josh together.

"See where the air is shimmering slightly in a Wade shape?" explained the redhead, "He's right there!" She walked up to Wade and tapped him on the head.

"Ow! I guess I need to work some more on this then."

"That depends. Do you plan on me using it, or yourself to sneak around?" Kim folded her arms.

"Kim!" exclaimed the boy in a shocked tone, "What on earth would I want to use it for?"

The redhead nodded. The boy may have been a super-genius, but his reclusiveness made him somewhat naïve. "Well, I'm a lot better at hiding than you without any kind of invisibility device — I doubt anyone will be able to see me _with_ it." A certain sidekick shot her a look. "Ron's pretty good at hiding, too," she added.

Wade flickered into vision with his hand wrapped around his wrist. "You might recognise this," he surmised, 'unclipping' a polished steel band.

"Centurion?" asked Kim, folding her arms as the band expanded into its dormant mode. Wade easily flipped it over his hand and held it out for the girl.

"Maybe in a past life," he remarked. "No, this baby is about the fourth generation of my own little project — based on Centurion, but with slightly more sophisticated nanotechnology and much better features. On top of that, the metal compound that it forms is so tough that you could punch through a wall made out of Vibronic Adamantium!"

"Watch out, Captain America!" Ron commented, almost drooling.

"'Vibronic Adamantium?' 'Captain America?' Am I missing something here?" asked Kim as she took the band from Wade's outstretched palm.

"Duh, KP!" Ron exclaimed, "Captain America's only the coolest super-hero with an Adamantium shield! Not even Wolverine could cut through it!"

"I've heard of Wolverine," said Kim dryly, "He was in that movie…."

"X-Men," Wade sighed. "It's a comic, by Marvel. Captain America is one of the Avengers, another comic. Adamantium is an indestructible metal that was constructed by a Canadian scientist, and bonded to Wolverine's skeleton and claws" – at this point Kim rolled her eyes and glanced at Josh, who just shrugged – "Vibronic Adamantium, which actually came first with unreproduceable results, is a stronger metal, the only existing sample of which makes Captain America's shield."

"So, it's stronger than some fictional metal?" sardoned Kim, after a brief pause that indicated the just proven nerd to be finished, "Great. So is it heavy?" The redhead flipped that band into the air and caught it around her wrist. As she expected, it tightened around her arm. What she didn't expect was for it to apparently integrate itself into her skin.

"No," replied Wade, "normally the armour is only about 10 atoms thick, and sub-molecular neuro-electronics can thicken the armour at any time where you need it."

"Neuro-electronics? This isn't going to interfere with my nervous system is it?" asked Kim worriedly. "and 10 atoms sounds pretty flimsy."

Wade grinned. "It's strong enough, believe me — the thickness only needs to be doubled to withstand a nuclear blast the size of Hiroshima. As for CNS interference — well, that's the beauty of it. Biometric sensing is in the past, this works via a direct extension of your nervous system. This particular one I pre-programmed to respond best to your brainwave patterns as well."

"Somehow that doesn't sound very reassuring. This particular one?"

"There's one in the works for Ron as well," explained the boy, "I'd have brought it, too, but soft coding electro-chemical reactions to Ron's brainwave patterns is proving to be quite entertaining."

"Okay, I'm confused," exclaimed Ron in his trademark fashion.

"And that's why," Wade continued, Ron growling at him.

"So how do I work it?"Kim asked, suppressing a laugh.

"Just think about growing a second skin. It's just like Centurion in that regard, but you have more conscious control over it."

Kim frowned, and concentrated hard on the task of growing armour. It was proving to be a futile expense of effort very fast. "It's not working," she said, shaking her head, and relaxed — an action that caused a fluid reaction on the surface of her skin, and almost instantly she was covered in a steely armour.

"Whoa!" exclaimed Ron, "That is badical!"

The second skin had a seamless surface that cascaded in a fluid motion where she moved. Kim tested it a couple of times by punching her abdomen. She then pulled the Beretta from a pocket and shot herself in the foot. The armour held better than the bullet, which flattened on the surface and slid off. Kim pocketed the gun again.

"Sweet," said Josh, walking up to her. He took Kim's hand, making her blush — and she disappeared. Josh fainted right there.

"**KP!**" Ron yelled, grabbing at her vanished image.

"What?!" asked Kim, reappearing.

"Ah, you still have that problem?" Wade asked. "That might cause difficulty on dates."

"What problem?!"

"Your blush reaction is, for you, very closely tied to the wish to disappear, I guess," explained Garçon Genié. "The armour reacts to that."

"Ah," Kim responded, glancing at Josh's prone figure. "That's a nice trick." She then looked questioningly at Wade. "How does this help with my hand?"

Wade smirked. "You work it out," he replied.

Kim closed her eyes and thought for a moment. When she opened them again, steel threads were knitting themselves into a hollow and remarkably hand-shaped glove, criss-crossed with reinforcing struts. Within a second she had a fully-formed steel hand, and she could _feel_ more threads under the armour growing into a muscle-like structure she could control easily. She flexed the new hand.

"You, Wade," she said very pointedly, "most definitely rock."

"Don't say that yet," he replied, "it gets better."

Working on a hunch, Kim concentrated on a feeling she could remember from a previous mission. She pushed Ron lightly in the sternum, and smiled as he fell backwards a little then looked to her to be stopped in an unbalanceable pose. The redhead walked around behind her friend, and then allowed time to catch up with her, and Ron fell backwards into her arms.

"I guess I don't have to tell you, then," Wade surmised.

"That was mean," complained Ron.

Kim laughed. "I stand by my statement, Wade."

* * *

Sorry to be so long between updates. I lost interest a little — Not in this story so much as in Kim Possible. I won't leave it unfinished though, and while it is tempting to change the ending to a sudden 'And then a meteor crashed into Earth and everyone died,' I already used that one for a creative writing story way back in year 6 – (or was it five?) Anyway, you're still having another few chapters forced on you. I won't be writing a sequel for obvious reasons, however the teased epilogue will have more chapters written around it to tail off the story instead.

Please Review; I promise to accept any with grace :-)


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